Hey Adam, this is a lot of the work that I do so I have lots of thoughts, but I'll just burden you with one-ish.
Part of the issue with mindset work is that there is no such thing as "Stress is..." Instead, imagine if we replaced the word stress with actual events and then the mindset approach must get much more nuanced:
"Studying late and having take high pressure tests is....enhancing!"
"Having to work 2 jobs to care for both my children and my sick mother is....debilitating"
Both can be true. Thus the difficulty of prescribing a particular mindset to people. I like to think more in terms of reappraisal because reappraisals can be contextualized differently to each stressor and person and we've identified when they are more useful (middling intense stressors with alternative perspectives) and when they're less useful (highly intense stressors that we have to do something about).
I really appreciate this. Please feel free to burden me with more!
Sounds like your perspective is that Crum's stress mindset approach and Jamieson's stress reappraisal research are really two sides of the same coin. Am I reading you right? That's certainly how it looks to me.
Is it easy to share the citation(s) for the contextual reappraisal/variable utility point in your final paragraph? I'm familiar with some research on this but it sounds like you're referring to something specific that I'm not familiar with (and am not finding on a quick search).
Yeah, they are two sides of the same coin. I just prefer the approaches that contextualize and specify the mindset being made about the stressor. Jeremy does that by directly tying a performance based stressor with a performance based reappraisal, i.e. "tell yourself that my arousal when doing this math task is helping me."
The issue is when we forget that these reappraisals in the studies are highly contextualized and make broad statements about having a general stress mindset that stress is good. Not saying any of the academics do this, but it can be an easy conclusion to draw for lay readers.
Here's a super recent study showing strategy usage varying by context and intensity of emotional experiences:
Here's a couple of ours showing the wide array of tactics people can use to reappraise, demonstrating that there's really not a one-size-fits-all mindset:
Hey Adam, this is a lot of the work that I do so I have lots of thoughts, but I'll just burden you with one-ish.
Part of the issue with mindset work is that there is no such thing as "Stress is..." Instead, imagine if we replaced the word stress with actual events and then the mindset approach must get much more nuanced:
"Studying late and having take high pressure tests is....enhancing!"
"Having to work 2 jobs to care for both my children and my sick mother is....debilitating"
Both can be true. Thus the difficulty of prescribing a particular mindset to people. I like to think more in terms of reappraisal because reappraisals can be contextualized differently to each stressor and person and we've identified when they are more useful (middling intense stressors with alternative perspectives) and when they're less useful (highly intense stressors that we have to do something about).
Thanks!
Christian
I really appreciate this. Please feel free to burden me with more!
Sounds like your perspective is that Crum's stress mindset approach and Jamieson's stress reappraisal research are really two sides of the same coin. Am I reading you right? That's certainly how it looks to me.
Is it easy to share the citation(s) for the contextual reappraisal/variable utility point in your final paragraph? I'm familiar with some research on this but it sounds like you're referring to something specific that I'm not familiar with (and am not finding on a quick search).
Thanks again — hugely grateful.
Yeah, they are two sides of the same coin. I just prefer the approaches that contextualize and specify the mindset being made about the stressor. Jeremy does that by directly tying a performance based stressor with a performance based reappraisal, i.e. "tell yourself that my arousal when doing this math task is helping me."
The issue is when we forget that these reappraisals in the studies are highly contextualized and make broad statements about having a general stress mindset that stress is good. Not saying any of the academics do this, but it can be an easy conclusion to draw for lay readers.
Here's a super recent study showing strategy usage varying by context and intensity of emotional experiences:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42761-026-00390-9
Here's a couple of ours showing the wide array of tactics people can use to reappraise, demonstrating that there's really not a one-size-fits-all mindset:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38358697/
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2024-08688-001
This is all fascinating. Thank you so much!
Oh this is brilliant. I'm going to have to sit with this a bit, let it cogitate, and maybe get back with you later.
Do get back to me when you’ve had time to mull it over! I love it when a piece resonants and I’d love to know how it does for you.