"Why is everyone always angry with me?!": When thinking 'why' leads to generalization

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Affective Science

Background:

• Overgeneralization of emotions to the self and situations is characteristic of depression and anxiety disorders.
• Cognitive mechanisms underlying emotional overgeneralization remain poorly understood.
• Abstract processing, or 'Why'-thinking, involves contemplating the meaning, causes, and consequences of events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of an abstract processing style on the generalization of angry faces to the self.
• To compare abstract ('Why') versus concrete ('How') processing styles in relation to self-generalization.

Main Methods:

• Participants processed images of angry faces paired with their own name and happy faces with another's name.
• An abstract ('Why') or concrete ('How') processing style was experimentally induced.
• A surprise recognition task assessed the generalization of angry faces to the self.

Main Results:

• Participants using an abstract processing style exhibited greater generalization of angry faces to the self.
• A trend towards increased generalization of happy faces to another person was observed in the abstract processing group.
• Abstract processing led to more self-referential generalization of negative emotional stimuli compared to concrete processing.

Conclusions:

• Abstract thought processes may contribute to the self-directed generalization of negative emotions observed in depression and social anxiety disorder.
• Findings suggest abstract thinking may underlie "Everyone is always angry with me" cognitions.
• Further research is needed to confirm these findings in clinical populations.