Collaborative Research: The Psychological Difficulties and Benefits of Deliberative Reflection

能够完全专注于我们的思想，不关注外部世界，这是人类的标志之一。虽然对许多形式的反思有大量的研究，例如解决问题和计划，但在没有任何外部刺激的情况下，对故意尝试用自己的思想来改善自己的主观幸福感的研究相对较少。一方面，考虑到人类记忆的丰富性（例如，回忆过去愉快事件的能力）以及构建愉快的白日梦和幻想的能力。另一方面，人们并不经常选择仅仅用他们的思想来娱乐自己。例如，当在家无事可做时，大多数人选择阅读，看电视，听音乐或追求他们最喜欢的爱好，而不是进行反思。拟议中的研究将调查为什么会这样，在什么条件下人们可以很好地利用他们空闲的头脑，以及深思熟虑的好处。这项研究的总体目标是更好地了解人类注意力和精神控制的本质，并通过这样做，发现人们可以减轻压力和改善幸福感的新方法。（弗吉尼亚大学），丹尼尔吉尔伯特（哈佛大学）和他的同事发现，人们通常不喜欢独自一人，除了思考什么也不做，他们更喜欢做世俗的外部活动，许多人宁愿对自己进行电击，而不是独自思考。大多数人似乎更喜欢做点什么，而不是什么都不做，即使这件事是消极的。这项研究将调查三个可能的原因。首先，如果人们试图长时间只思考积极的想法，消极的想法就会开始侵入。第二，在没有任何外部刺激的情况下，人们不断地扫描外部环境。如果外部世界没有任何东西可以吸引扫描仪，它就会继续搜索输入，耗尽可以用于内部思考的资源。第三，人们可能不知道如何有效地进行幻想，但可以教他们这样做。这12项拟议的研究将涉及实验室实验、实地实验和经验抽样方法，并包括大学生和社区成员作为参与者。

The ability to occupy ourselves solely with our thoughts, paying no attention to the external world, is one of the signatures of what it is to be human. Although there is substantial research on many forms of reflection, such as problem solving and planning, there is relatively little research on deliberate attempts to improve one's subjective well being with one's own thoughts in the absence of any external stimulation. On the one hand this would seem easy to do so, given the richness of human memory (e.g., the ability to recall pleasant events from one's past) and the ability to construct enjoyable daydreams and fantasies. On the other hand, people do not often choose to entertain themselves solely with their minds. When at home with nothing to do, for example, most people choose to read, watch television, listen to music, or pursue their favorite hobby instead of engaging in reflection. The proposed research will investigate why this is, the conditions under which people can put their disengaged minds to good use, and the benefits of deliberative reflection. The overall goal of the research is to understand better the nature of human attention and mental control, and by so doing, discover new ways in which people can reduce stress and improve their well-being.In preliminary research, Timothy Wilson (University of Virginia), Daniel Gilbert (Harvard University) and colleagues found that people typically do not enjoy spending time by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much more, and that many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts. Most people seem to prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something is negative. The proposed research will investigate three possible reasons why this is. First, if people attempt to think exclusively about positive thoughts for too long, negative thoughts begin to intrude. Second, in the absence of any external stimulation people continually scan the external environment. If there is nothing in the external world to engage the scanner it keeps searching for input, using up resources that could be devoted to internal thought. Third, people may not know how to engage in reverie effectively but can be taught to do so. The 12 proposed studies will involve laboratory experiments, field experiments, and experience sampling methodologies, and include college students and community members as participants.