Last night as I completed this week's readings, I had InDecision 2010 on in the background. Usually multitasking is not the best idea, but none the less the themes of hope, optimism, and sense-making were pervasive as I tuned into Stewart & Colberts' analyses. Rand and Cheavens (2009) define hope as "the perceived ability to produce pathways to achieve desired goals and to motivate oneself to use those pathways" (p. 323). The basic premise of hope theory is that human behavior is goal directed with approach and avoidance goals. Hope was the campaign promise that Obama made in 2008. Yes We Can! Change we can believe in! While it's change that I still believe in, based on last night's election results, it can't help but feel like as a nation we are losing sight of our pathways to hope. The optimism of 2-years ago has given way to pessimism and dissolution. Our unrealistic optimism as described by Chang and Sanna (2003) has left us with an Obama hangover. Is optimism always beneficial? Did we place unrealistic expectations on Obama to fix the economy, end 2 wars, secure universal health care, and legalize gay marriage? Our once bright hope of 2008 has given way to darkness as we reframe the state of our union, and attempt make sense out of what it all means politically.
Politics aside, I was drawn to this week's readings through personal experiences regarding writing and talking about life's triumphs, and certainly most often, its defeats. I appreciate that these readings were included in the overall dark side course. I have not been exposed to these ideas or really thought about how writing and talking could be a negative experience depending on the context. Lyubomirsky, Sousa, and Dickerhoof (2006) found that improved life satisfaction as well as enhanced physical and mental health were linked to writing and talking about negative experiences, but not related to positive life experiences. Positive experiences were best left in the catacombs of your mind to ruminate in ways that are disorganized and free of language construction. To write about happy reduces your well-being and physical health. I used this study to understand my own experiences with thinking versus writing, talking, and also performing my life experiences.
I would love to see research that builds upon Lyubomirsky et al's study to explore the element of performance in regards to expressing positive and negative events. I see a difference between simply talking about the experience with a friend, with a therapist, with a researcher and being on a stage communicating and collaborating with an audience about your experience: To think about the words that you write, connecting them to the sounds that you make, and use your body has a channel for emotional expression. I remember my first foray into the world of slam poetry. I convinced some of my grad school friends @ SDSU to join me at the weekly meeting of the Drunk Poet's Society in OB. A free shot for the first 10 poets was motivation that we'd have a little bit of liquid courage to help us get through it. I performed a piece that discussed my experience being assaulted by my ex boyfriend. A very raw and emotional depiction of our relationship and that incident in particular. I wasn't the only one who reached out and went for the dark side. My best friend discussed his bad habit of drunk dialing his ex-girlfriend and viciously attacking her for no good reason. He initiated the break up as part of his coming out process so he was attempting to make sense of why he still constantly harassed her. Another friend discussed her battle with an eating disorder and her experience joining a support group. For me, the experience allowed me to write, speak, and also express raw, unguarded emotions. I got angry, I got mad, I got sad and it was cathartic to have the space, to have an actual stage to stand on, and work through the event. Since that first night, I've been fortunate to attend several meetings of the Drunk Poet's Society (and yes I always get my free shot - no matter how often you perform a little liquid courage never hurts) and also be involved in SDSU's production of The Vagina Monologues (I have a video of my performance posted on my Facebook page if you are interested in seeing the Angry Vagina in action). That experience changed my life and really showed me the power behind not only writing, but the need to perform your words as well. I connected this idea of the power of performance to Koenig Kellas, Willer, and Kranstubers' (2010) chapter on narratives and sense making. These brilliant minds addressed the need for future research that looked at the collaborative (that's what I read into it), communicative impact of sense making as opposed to the individual cognition and processes. How does performing your narrative as opposed to writing or talking about it impact sense-making? What does this mean in terms of life satisfaction and well being? Does the type of life event (positive v. negative) that you are performing influence your mental and physical health as well? These are questions that I hope future researchers address and could possibly make more of a space for performance studies within the communication discipline.
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