Reappraisal
Also known as: Cognitive reappraisal
Changing how you think about a situation to change how it feels.
What it means
Reappraisal is an emotion-regulation strategy that alters the emotional impact of a situation by reinterpreting its meaning, for instance recasting a threat as a challenge or an insult as a sign of the other person's stress. As an antecedent-focused strategy, it intervenes early, before the emotional response is fully generated, which is why it tends to reduce both the felt experience and its physiological signature. Compared with expressive suppression, reappraisal is associated with better mood, memory, and social outcomes and lower long-term cost, making it the 'healthy' regulation strategy in Gross's model. Its effectiveness nonetheless depends on context, ability, and effort, and it can be hard to deploy under intense or chronic stress. It is the workhorse technique of cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Examples
Reframing pre-interview nerves as 'my body getting ready to perform' rather than 'I'm falling apart' lowers the felt anxiety.
A driver cuts you up and your grip tightens; deciding he is probably late for a hospital visit, not out to insult you, drains most of the anger before it fully arrives.
A toddler howling in the supermarket is 'a tired two-year-old at the end of his rope,' not 'a public verdict on my parenting' — same scene, far cheaper feeling.
First described in James Gross (1998, 2002).