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Negative Reappraisal​: Definition, Examples, and Activity

By Tchiki Davis, MA, PhD
What is negative reappraisal? Discover how to use negative reappraisal to reframe experiences to make them less negative.
Emotion activities: Negative reappraisal
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Negative emotions are inevitable. In fact, trying to suppress or ignore negative emotions actually reduces happiness. Instead of avoiding negative emotions, it's best to learn skillful ways of working with your negative emotions to reduce them or transform them into positive emotions.

In this activity, you will practice using an emotion regulation strategy called reappraisal. Reappraisal has been shown to both increase resilience and reduce negative emotions.

Negative reappraisal involves cognitively reframing an event as less negative. For example, let’s say that I dropped my sandwich on the ground and I have nothing else to eat for lunch. I might tell myself that I am better off than people in the world who don’t have any food. Or I might tell myself that it’s not so bad because I can get a snack later in the day.

Activity: Negative reappraisal

For this activity, you will get an example of an event. Practice reappraising this scenario as less negative. Come up with as many reappraisals as you can over the next few minutes.​

Sample Situation:

A kid was making fun of me on the playground
    Note. Submitting your responses enables us to better understand how people reappraise. If you want to keep your responses, you'll have to save to PDF or print this page. Thanks!
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What did people say?

Thank you to everyone who submitted your responses to this activity! We can now share some responses. Hopefully these will help you learn new ways to reappraise.

When someone makes fun of you, you could use negative reappraisal the situation by thinking:
  • He/she was paying attention to me so they must care about what I'm doing.
  • This person is only making fun of me because they are unhappy themselves.
  • This person is probably just having a bad day.
  • At least no one else heard it.
  • It was good that just one person was making fun of me, not several.
  • They make fun of me because they know I'm strong and can laugh it off.
  • They make fun of everyone. It's not about me.
  • He/she must be having a bad day.
  • Other people like me, so it must be about them.

Next time you come across a difficult situation, see if you can use negative reappraisal to defuse some of your negative emotions.

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About Dr. Tchiki Davis
Dr. Davis is founder of The Berkeley Well-Being Institute. After getting her PhD in psychology at Berkeley, she started creating online content & programs to boost well-being—some of these have reached more than a million people. As author of Outsmart Your Smartphone, and contributor to Psychology Today, The Greater Good Science Center, and Shine Text, Dr. Davis aims to share her insights on happiness & health with people all across the world. Learn more about Dr. Davis.
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