<p>Today I finished the book "Crucial Conversations", great book, would recommend to anyone. In it there were numerous explicit or implicit theories about psychology and one of them in particular caught my attention.</p>

<p>The theory proposes that when we see &amp; experience something we tell ourselves a story and that story changes how we feel about the situation and then we act upon those emotions.</p>

<p>So the question is how does it work, does what we tell ourselves in our head affect the chemicals in our bloodstream, is everyone's outer behavior a representation of their thought's(WELL DURR)?</p>

<p>I would love any references or perhaps a more in depth explanation, love ya guys and gals :)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-13T00:54:58.170Z
Do you happen to know what that theory is called? Or who proposed it?
mrt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-13T12:26:19.607Z
No sadly I do not, that's actually a part of my problem, I would love to research this further.
Olavi Sau
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-13T21:37:47.003Z
Hmmm, so by "tell ourselves a story" you mean things like rationalization?
mrt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-13T21:53:56.100Z
Yeah I think it's definitely a pretty good definition of that.
Olavi Sau
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-01T02:18:45.393Z
I think we can rule out this hypothesis as story-telling happens far too slowly to account for the speed of emotional reactions and decision-making.  A related question that I think answers this better: [Is Decision-Making Emotionally Based, with Rationalization as the only Conscious Component?](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/q/546/7001)  Some types of rationalization have a downregulating effect on emotion (eg, cognitive dissonance, defense mechanisms), which may help to reduce stress, but rationalization likely has a largely social (rather than emotional) motivation.
Arnon Weinberg
<cognitive-psychology><perception><emotion><personality>
What happens to our emotions when we tell ourselves stories(rationalization + analyzing)?
Olavi Sau
# What happens to our emotions when we tell ourselves stories(rationalization + analyzing)?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-11-13)

Today I finished the book "Crucial Conversations", great book, would recommend to anyone. In it there were numerous explicit or implicit theories about psychology and one of them in particular caught my attention.

The theory proposes that when we see & experience something we tell ourselves a story and that story changes how we feel about the situation and then we act upon those emotions.

So the question is how does it work, does what we tell ourselves in our head affect the chemicals in our bloodstream, is everyone's outer behavior a representation of their thought's(WELL DURR)?

I would love any references or perhaps a more in depth explanation, love ya guys and gals :)

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, perception, emotion, personality

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Do you happen to know what that theory is called? Or who proposed it?  
> **username_0**: No sadly I do not, that's actually a part of my problem, I would love to research this further.  
> **username_1**: Hmmm, so by "tell ourselves a story" you mean things like rationalization?  
> **username_0**: Yeah I think it's definitely a pretty good definition of that.  
> **username_2**: I think we can rule out this hypothesis as story-telling happens far too slowly to account for the speed of emotional reactions and decision-making.  A related question that I think answers this better: [Is Decision-Making Emotionally Based, with Rationalization as the only Conscious Component?](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/q/546/7001)  Some types of rationalization have a downregulating effect on emotion (eg, cognitive dissonance, defense mechanisms), which may help to reduce stress, but rationalization likely has a largely social (rather than emotional) motivation.  

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## 0 answers

