[Heartlogic-dev] [FWD] Re: coping

[Joshua N Pritikin]

[CC'd with permission]

----- Forwarded message from "William L. Jarrold" <address@hidden> -----

From: "William L. Jarrold" <address@hidden>
To: Joshua N Pritikin <address@hidden>
Cc: "William L. Jarrold" <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: coping (was Re: Becky Omdahl)

On Sun, 30 May 2004, Joshua N Pritikin wrote:

> On Sat, May 29, 2004 at 08:05:14PM -0500, William L. Jarrold wrote:
> > > > There is a chance

<......>

> >
> > So what is the difference between problem focused coping and emotion
> > focused coping?  My guess is that problem focused is about try to help
> > the person react to or view the situation in such a way so as to minimize
> > negative emotion.  Emotion focused is to encourage expression of the
> > emotion so as to discharge its energy.  Am I right?
>
> To refresh my memory, I grabbed:
>
> Hill, R.W. Jr., Gratch, J., Marsella, S., Rickel, J., Swartout, W.,
> Traum, D.R. Virtual Humans in the Mission Rehearsal Exercise
> System. KI special issue on Embodied Conversational Agents (2003).
>
> I'm re-reading.  It sounds like the coping stuff is based on Lazarus
> (1991), not Zajonc.  "Problem-focsd strategies act on the world and
> include acting, planning, or certain forms of speech acts (request,
> order, etc.) ...  Emotion-focused strategies act internally to change
> beliefs or desires."

Ah.  Thanks.

>
> The examples they give of emotion-focused strategies mostly seem
> dysfunctional.  Whatever.

Hrm.  I have seen a whole book called something like "Emotion Focused
Therapy."

>
> I am more interested in using planning to widen the set of possible
> future events which are plan congruent.

Right.  Planning seems important to appraisal.  This is why
Jonathan Gratch is smart to be into a planning.  I dunno
much at all about planning.  My model does not make significant
use of planning.

>
> To adapt your example from long ago, I walk into a video rental shop.
> If I only want a specific science documentary then I may feel some
> tension about whether it will be available.  However, if I want _any_
> science documentary then I can relax because the chances are good that
> at least some documentary will be available.

Okay.  This is a little different than what I originally said.  I brought
that up as an example of a type II appraisal...But the same knowledge
structure, i.e. that "a science documentary is a kind of documentary"
should be usable by a coping process or an appraisal process.  Likewise,
this knowledge structure should be usable by a planning process or an
appraisal process.

>
> What I want to emphasize is that this style of coping takes place
> _before_ I enter the rental shop, not after I fail to satisfy my
> specific goal.

Right.  Alternatively, it sounds to me like you are using a kind of
buddhist technique for opening yourself up to be more tolerant of the
present moment or something like that.  Or, making yourself more flexible
with your desires.

> In Beckian terminology, it might be "proactive
> cognitive reframing."  According to ICT, it is probably a
> problem-focused coping strategy.

Hrm, I disagree.  To me it seems like a kind of emotion focused
strategy...You are modifying an internal state, in particular you
are modifying one of your goals.  Because you are modifying an internal
state and not an external state, it follows that what you are doing is
closer to emotion focused than problem focused coping.

Bill

signature.asc
Description: Digital signature