The Remembered Self by JEFFERSON A. SINGER & PETER SALOVEY & C. Milosz & L. Nathan

Author:JEFFERSON A. SINGER & PETER SALOVEY & C. Milosz & L. Nathan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Free Press
Published: 1993-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Emotions and Attending to the Self

Although emotionally evocative stimuli are likely to capture our attention at first, there is a second attentional process stimulated by emotions. After the stimuli instigating the arousal of emotion are identified and encoded, the emotional experience is followed by the turn of attention inward in a self-reflective state. We have called this process mood-induced self-focused attention (Salovey, 1992); self-focused attention is defined as “selectively attending to information that originates from within and concerns the self” (Carver & Scheier, 1981, p. 35).

In general, following the kindling of an emotion, we believe that individuals focus attention on themselves, unless their attentions are deliberately redirected elsewhere (Salovey & Rodin, 1985). This effect seems especially strong for more negative emotions, but is also promoted by positive emotions as well. When individuals have emotional experiences, they become self-preoccupied. Their attention turns away from external social cues and shifts inward toward themselves. There seems to be more of an inclination to search inward to clarify the emotional experience, once elicited, than outward. We speculate that during this inward focusing of attention, individuals become aware of changes in thoughts about themselves that accompany the emotion; we describe these changes in self-relevant thoughts later in the chapter.

By shifts in the focus of attention on to internal processes, we mean a reduction of the individual’s concern with or awareness of cues in the external world and an increase in the processing of cues emanating from internal sources like the stream of conscious thought, mental images, or physical sensations. For example, we can become so deep in thought—that is, so self-focused—that we don’t notice someone entering the room or even hear the telephone ring. Attentional capacity is limited and, more or less, the more resources devoted to internal sources of information, the less are available for the processing of external stimuli. The inverse is also true: we might be so captured by an environmental event, like a loud noise or a beautiful scene, that we lose track of our train of thought in midstream or forget that only a moment ago we were experiencing a nagging headache.

Emotion-induced self-focused attention seems rather obvious among individuals experiencing distressing affects. Sad people seem to withdraw into themselves, becoming less responsive to external cues, a phenomenon that is, perhaps, chronic among individuals suffering from depression. But even the first flush of joy or excitement may be greeted with self-focus. Upon receiving good news, we might close our eyes, smile, take a deep breath, and only then seek out others with whom to share our good fortune.

Because emotions are instigated by unexpected stimuli through the sequence of SECs described earlier, in emotionally arousing situations, one must clarify the source of the emotion and the feelings experienced by matching the incoming information with pre-existing knowledge. These processes involve self-reflective thinking, in part accounting for the turning of attention inward when emotions are experienced. Further, self-focusing in these situations intensifies the emotion, thereby allowing the feeling to be specified better and rendering

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