ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办:中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2016, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (11): 1802-1810.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2016.01802

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The positive effects of defocusing on experienced well-being and its mechanism

LI Aimei; LI Xin; XIONG Guanxing; SUN Hailong; TAN Lei   

  1. (Management School, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China)
  • Received:2016-04-03 Online:2016-11-15 Published:2016-11-15
  • Contact: XIONG Guanxing, E-mail: xiongguanxing@163.com; LI Aimei, E-mail: tliaim@jnu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Defocusing is a strategy to reduce focusing illusion by diverting individual’s attention away from focal events or factors. How to make use of defocusing to improve our experienced well-being has become a focus in positive psychology. Defocusing can significantly alleviate different types of negative emotions, and its mechanism can be explained by distraction hypothesis and emotional processing theory. Furthermore, we recommend that future researches pay attention to the comparison of generic defocusing and self-relevant defocusing, the subsequent impact of defocusing on experienced well-being and the influence of re-focusing on experienced well-being.

Key words: defocusing, negative emotions, experienced well-being, distraction hypothesis, emotional processing theory