The Impact of Perspective Change As a Cognitive Reappraisal Strategy on Affect: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The strategic or deliberate adoption of a cognitively distanced, third-person perspective is proposed to adaptively regulate emotions. However, studies of psychological disorders suggest spontaneous adoption of a third-person perspective reflects counter-productive avoidance. Here, we review studies that investigate the deliberate adoption of a third- or first-person vantage perspective and its impact on affect in healthy people, “sub-clinical” populations and those with psychological disorders. A systematic search was conducted across four databases. After exclusion criteria were applied, 38 studies were identified that investigated the impact of both imagery and verbal instructions designed to encourage adoption of a third-person perspective on self-reported affect. The identified studies examined a variety of outcomes related to recalling memories, imagining scenarios and mood induction. These were associated with specific negative emotions or mood states (dysphoria/sadness, anxiety, anger), mixed or neutral affect autobiographical memories, and self-conscious affect (e.g., guilt). Engaging a third-person perspective was generally associated with a reduction in the intensity of positive and negative affect. Studies that included measures of semantic change, suggested that this is a key mediator in reduction of affect following perspective change. Strategically adopting a “distanced,” third-person perspective is linked to a reduction in affect intensity across valence, but in addition has the potential to introduce new information that regulates emotion via semantic change. Such reappraisal distinguishes deliberate adoption of a distanced perspective from the habitual and/or spontaneous shift in perspective that occurs in psychopathology.

Alcohol related mental imagery: The effects of a priming dose in at risk drinkers

“…To specifically test the idea that first person perspective is associated with greater reward/desire-related affect ( Wallace-Hadrill & Kamboj, 2016 ) we compared craving in participants who predominantly experienced first versus third person perspectives during alcohol imagery and during neutral imagery (this analysis was restricted to the placebo condition because of the unbalanced sample sizes in the alcohol drink condition). Craving levels were higher in participants with first person perspective during alcohol imagery ( t (38) = 2.75, p = 0.009, d = 0.94) whereas craving did not differ between participants with first with third person perspectives for neutral images (t values < 1).…”

“…First/third person perspectives was assessed as in similar studies (see Wallace-Hadrill & Kamboj, 2016 ) and treated dichotomously.…”

“…Studies of mental imagery in mood and anxiety disorders suggest that deliberate switching of imagery perspective from first to third person reduces emotional intensity in mood and anxiety disorders ( Wallace-Hadrill & Kamboj, 2016 ). If this observation reflects a general relationship between visuospatial perspective and affect, egocentric perspective should be more prevalent and associated with higher levels of craving during drug related imagery in those for whom the drug has motivational salience.…”

Inducing positive involuntary mental imagery in everyday life: an experimental investigation

“…To facilitate emotional involvement or detachment our instructions also included a perspective manipulation; that is, participants in the emotionally involved group were instructed to imagine the scenarios from a 'field' perspective, seeing the events as if through their own eyes, and participants in the emotionally-detached group were instructed to imagine the events from an 'observer' perspective, seeing the events from the outside as if watching a film of themselves (see e.g., Nigro & Neisser, 1983). This use of a perspective manipulation to influence the emotion experienced drew on literature indicating that, in general, observer-perspective imagery and memories are generally experienced as less emotional than field-perspective imagery (e.g., PREPRINT OF UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT: see https://osf.io/whk2b/ v4.0 02.07.20 Kuyken & Moulds, 2009;Vella & Moulds, 2014;Wallace-Hadrill & Kamboj, 2016). In the context of imagery CBM, previous studies instructing participants to use either a field or observer perspective to imagine scenarios have not consistently found a difference in the effects on state positive affect (Holmes et al, 2008;Nelis et al, 2012).…”

Feeling happy when feeling down: The effectiveness of positive mental imagery in dysphoria

“…In healthy individuals, the deliberate adoption of an observer (or third-person) perspective can have an emotion regulating effect by reducing negative emotions and related outcomes through the facilitation of a change in meaning or understanding of a negative situation, thereby functioning as a cognitive reappraisal strategy [17]. However, in depressed individuals, imagery of negative events or memories from an observer perspective is linked to greater avoidance and rumination [12; 13; 16].…”