Can worrying be beneficial?
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170427120906.htm
This article takes a look at Kate Sweeny's, a psychology professor at the University of California, argument that worrying can be beneficial to someone's health and mental well being. Sweeny says that worry is associated with planning behaviors, recovery from traumatic experiences and depression, and is associated with engaging in health promoting behaviors and successful problem solving. In this article, worrying is seen as a motivator in planning and prevention. This is illustrated by stating that people who worry more are more likely to wear a seat-belt, and undergo more health examinations and physicals to prevent health problems in the future. People who worry are more likely to have a plan B in all situations which promotes better adaptive tendencies and mental well-being. Three specific explanations were given for the motivation that comes with worry:
1. People turn to their emotions when making decisions and judgments, therefore worrying acts as a "cue" for people that a situation requires action.
2. When worrying about a "stressor", we keep the thought in the front of our mind and consciousness, causing us to act more quickly in ridding of the stressor.
3. The feeling we get from worry motivates us to reduce the unpleasant feeling through action.
Sweeny also talks about how worry can be seen as an emotional "buffer". If someone expects the worst out of a situation, what they will realistically experience will feel alot more pleasurable compared to their extreme negative thoughts. In other words, anything will feel more pleasurable than the worry thoughts, even if in reality it is not very pleasurable.
I found this article to be intriguing because it is a topic that I can relate to. I have explored the topic of worry and stress in other psychology classes at Towson, and have come to learn that stress and worry are not bad for the health in themselves; however, it is our perception of the stress and worry that contributes to good or bad health. Sweeny's approach supports that thought that stress and worry are all about perception, and if we perceive worry as a motivator, then it will ultimately benefit us in the long run. I can relate to this article because I am someone who experiences daily stress and worry which can sometimes make me feel immobilized. It leads to depressive like symptoms and a ton of anxiety. Learning more about stress as a motivator has helped me to view my stress in a positive light, and use it to motivate myself into action. I think more people should be taught that stress isn't always harmful to your health, and that it can be very beneficial toward taking action.
I think that worrying, in moderation, can be a very good thing. As discussed in our emotion regulation topic, up-regulating negative emotions has it's benefits. As you said, worrying can help increase motivation. Sometimes, having stronger emotions can help people adapt to situations of high stress more easily. Worrying is a sign of caring, which in my opinion is not a bad thing. Of course, worrying can become out of control for some people, but it does have its upsides in motivation especially.
ReplyDeleteWorrying is an emotion that people find themselves feeling often. Most feel it and may not even realize that they are. As much discomfort as worrying can cause, it is helpful in many situations. Without worry we would not realize that something could be dangerous or harmful. In our emotion regulation unit we learned how regulating our emotions is important for our psychological health, as well as making sure our behaviors fit the situation. Factors such as stress are useful and help us make sense of emotions and experiences, but it is important to regulate it. They also help us figure out our next action could be, based on how a certain action made us feel. A positive that was stated in the article was that it can be a motivating factor. A negative aspect could be that too much worrying can be hard on psychological health. Having the right balance is important for overall health.
ReplyDeleteI can attest to this. For the most part the things that I worry about is time related. I usually worry about being late for class and work. I feel like this is beneficial because it motivates me to show up to work and to class on time and it always works out for me. In addition to worrying about exams and wanting to do well on them. So yes, I agree that worry can be beneficial.
ReplyDeleteAs an avid worrier I definitely see first hand what Sweeny is referring to when she discusses the 3 purposes for worrying in regards to motivation. Especially with the secong point, about "worrying about a "stressor", we keep the thought in the front of our mind and consciousness", this is true for me because I feel that almost when I worry it is a was to keep me from forgetting something important in many cases. For example worrying about an exam, I can know thank my constant worrying for the reason I have never missed a test.
ReplyDeleteIn Social Psychology, we learned that negative emotions are functional. Meaning, they allow us to change our actions or fix our behavior to get rid of the negative emotions. For example, "disgust" prevents us from eating bad things. "Fear" prevents us from doing dangerous things. "Worry" prevents us from procrastinating and allows us to work through a problem. "Worry" is an important and necessary emotion that we can not live without because it tells us we have to do something. I try not to worry about school work, however, after reading this article I know that worrying is very beneficial to me.
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