Linguistic Shifts: Examining the Effects of `Distanced Self-Talk' and `Generic-You' on the Construction of Meaning

This dissertation examines how subtle shifts in language can affect how people construct meaning from their experiences. I present evidence from eight experiments (N’s range from 49 - 193) that focus on two related, but distinct, linguistic mechanisms that allow individuals to adopt a broader, more distanced perspective: distanced self-talk (i.e., using one’s own name or second or third person pronouns to refer to the self; e.g., “Ariana, you can do this”) and generic-you (i.e., ‘you’ that refers to people in general; e.g., “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”). Chapter 1 provides a brief review of the existing literature on distanced self-talk and generic-you, highlighting their functionality for promoting psychological distance and emotion regulation. Chapter 2 consists of two experiments illustrating that distanced self-talk promotes emotion regulation when people reflect on intense, personal experiences, and among individuals who score high on trait-like measures of anxiety, brooding and depressive symptoms. The third chapter presents one study demonstrating that young children spontaneously use generic-you to express generalizations about negative experiences, suggesting that this may be a foundational meaning-making mechanism. Chapter 4 examines whether generic-you is functional for the addressee, focusing on how it operates in normative contexts. I present five experiments demonstrating that people endorse unfamiliar behaviors as more normative when they are expressed with generic-you (vs. I). This effect persists even when participants are told that the individuals providing the information are highly knowledgeable, and information expressed with “I” should be equally valid. In the final chapter, I propose that both of the linguistic shifts reviewed in the previously mentioned chapters may operate relatively effortlessly, which has implications regarding when and for whom linguistic routes to emotion regulation may be adaptive. Specifically, it suggests that distanced self-talk and generic-you should be effective even when individuals are experiencing high levels of distress, and among populations whose cognitive control capacities are less efficient (i.e., those with depression or anxiety) or still developing (i.e., children).PHDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149849/1/aorvell_1.pd

How Spanish speakers express norms using generic person markers

Language is one powerful vehicle for transmitting norms—a universal feature of society. In English, people use “you” generically (e.g., “You win some you lose some”) to express and interpret norms. Here, we examine how norms are conveyed and interpreted in Spanish, a language that—unlike English—has two forms of you (i.e., formal, informal), distinct generic person markers, and pro-drop, allowing for an examination of underlying conceptual tendencies in how the structure of language facilitates the transmission of norms. In Study 1a-b (N = 838) Spanish speakers used informal generic-you and the generic person marker “se” (but not formal-you) to express norms (vs. preferences). In Study 2 (N = 300), formal you, informal you, and impersonal “se” had persuasive force over personal endorsements (e.g., “I”), informing Spanish speaker’s interpretation of unfamiliar norms. Our findings add to a growing literature on how subtle linguistic shifts reflect and influence cognitive processes

You speaks to me: Effects of generic-you in creating resonance between people and ideas

Creating resonance between people and ideas is a central goal of communication. Historically, attempts to understand the factors that promote resonance have focused on altering the content of a message. Here we identify an additional route to evoking resonance that is embedded in the structure of language: the generic use of the word “you” (e.g., “You can’t understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes”). Using crowd-sourced data from the Amazon Kindle application, we demonstrate that passages that people highlighted—collectively, over a quarter of a million times—were substantially more likely to contain generic-you compared to yoked passages that they did not highlight. We also demonstrate in four experiments (n = 1,900) that ideas expressed with generic-you increased resonance. These findings illustrate how a subtle shift in language establishes a powerful sense of connection between people and ideas

What you and we say about me: How small shifts in language reveal and empower fundamental shifts in perspective

One of the most fundamental, yet often overlooked, compo-nents of language is the personal pronoun system. Pronouns reveal and empower different perspectives, providing insight into and even altering how a person is conceptualiz-ing the self. Here, we illustrate how the pronouns “I,” “you,” and “we” can enable shifts in perspective that bring a person further from, or closer to, others. We additionally highlight the implications of these pronoun shifts on the address-ee(s). We review a growing body of research that focuses on how these words can function as both windows—provid-ing insight into the thoughts and emotions of a speaker, and levers—that can subtly alter the speaker\u27s and addressee(s)’ thoughts, emotions, and even behaviors, across a range of domains. We conclude by discussing possibilities for future research

Use and efficacy of emotion regulation strategies in daily life: an experience sampling study among college students

Overall, the aim of this study is to examine the extent to which college students employ various emotion regulation strategies in response to idiosyncratically experienced stressors in daily life, as well as the efficacy of those strategies to reduce momentary experiences of stress and negative affect

The Michigan Skills Project: Changing the way students learn

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Learning the rules of the game: The role of generic you and we in shaping children\u27s interpretations of norms

A critical skill of childhood is learning social norms. We examine whether the generic pronouns “you” and “we,” which frame information as applying to people in general rather than to a specific individual, facilitate this process. In one pre-registered experiment conducted online between 2020 and 2021, children 4- to 9-year-old primarily living in the midwestern U.S. (N = 146, 75 girls, 71 boys, Mage = 7.14, SD = 1.69, 82% White) interpreted actions described with generic pronouns (vs. “I”) as normatively correct and selected the speaker who used generic pronouns as the rule-follower, particularly when generic pronouns were presented first. There were no significant effects of age. These results illustrate how generic pronouns influence how children discern unfamiliar norms and form interpersonal judgments

Does Distanced Self-Talk Facilitate Emotion Regulation Across a Range of Emotionally Intense Experiences?

Research indicates that a subtle shift in language—silently referring to oneself using one’s own name and non–first-person-singular pronouns (i.e., distanced self-talk)—promotes emotion regulation. Yet it remains unclear whether the efficacy of distanced self-talk depends on the intensity of the negative experience reflected on and whether the benefits extend to emotionally vulnerable individuals. Two high-powered experiments addressed these issues. Distanced as opposed to immersed self-talk reduced emotional reactivity when people reflected on negative experiences that varied in their emotional intensity. These findings held when participants focused on future and past autobiographical events and when they scored high on individual difference measures of emotional vulnerability. The results also generalized across various types of negative events. These findings illuminate the functionality of language for allowing people to regulate their emotions when reflecting on negative experiences across the spectrum of emotional intensity and highlight the need for future research to examine the clinical implications of this techniqu

Passive Facebook usage undermines affective wellbeing: Experimental and longitudinal evidence

Prior research indicates that Facebook usage predicts declines in subjective well-being over time. How does this come about? We examined this issue in 2 studies using experimental and field methods. In Study 1, cueing people in the laboratory to use Facebook passively (rather than actively) led to declines in affective well-being over time. Study 2 replicated these findings in the field using experience-sampling techniques. It also demonstrated how passive Facebook usage leads to declines in affective well-being: by increasing envy. Critically, the relationship between passive Facebook usage and changes in affective well-being remained significant when controlling for active Facebook use, non-Facebook online social network usage, and direct social interactions, highlighting the specificity of this result. These findings demonstrate that passive Facebook usage undermines affective well-being