It WILL hurt for long.....or so you think

I am a competitive person by nature and at times this is wonderful. For example, when I was younger playing soccer, my competitiveness would help drive me to play my best and hopefully help my team win. However, my competitiveness was my downfall in other ways due to my tendency to take loosing to heart. Whenever my team lost (weather in professional sports or on my recreational sports team) I became upset and I had a propensity to over exaggerate my feelings. With every loss, I thought my life was over. My extreme emotional response combined with the inability to predict how I would feel in the future in response to events is in line with the concept of affective forecasting (Wilson & Gilbert, 2003).

             Affective forecasting basically refers to an individual’s ability to predict how they will feel in the future in response to specific events (Wilson & Gilbert, 2003). In other words, an individual predicting they would still feel sad or upset in two weeks after they had not been chosen to receive an award they thought they deserved exemplifies the notion of affective forecasting. Importantly, there are two possible reasons that can be attributed to why individuals tend to hold strong affective forecasting (Wilson & Gilbert, 2003). First, individuals tend to underestimate their ability to psychologically cope with negative life events. Secondly, individuals have a tendency to focus so much on that single event that individuals ignore the effect of the numerous other events going on in their lives.

            The concept of affective forecasting not only affected me while I was still playing competitive soccer, but also more recently while watching the NFL. Once the Patriots got to the playoffs I continued to think of what would happen if the Patriots lost in the playoffs or super bowl. The sheer notion of my team losing made me upset. I subsequently tried to block such negative thoughts out of my head, but the idea that my life would be over if they lost wouldn’t disappear. I thought I would live with being upset forever. In my mind I thought I would end up like these sad football fans.

However, contrary to my original thought, once the Patriots did lose to the horrible Baltimore Ravens, after a couple of days had passed I felt no different than I had before the Patriots had lost. Moreover, after the Patriots playoff loss I even came to find out that I felt the same way as my friend who was a Ravens fan.

            It was interesting that once the Patriots lost, I noticed that, I also started to engage in downward social comparisons (Hakmiller, 1996). The notion of downward social comparisons means that in lieu of negative information individuals tend to become defensive and compare themselves to other individuals worse off then themselves.  For example, although I thought my life would be over because the Patriots lost, I started to think about other teams and was reassured because at least the Patriots made it to the playoffs.       

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Hakmiller, K.L. (1996). Threat as a determinant of downward comparison. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (Suppl. 1), 32-39. 

Sashary28 (2012, February 5). Crying pats fan. Retrieved January 28, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr2EF362Q0k

Thewiz117 (2009, January 21). Giants fan in shambles. Retrieved January 28, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-6Tn0Ie-AQ

Wilson, T. D., & Gilbert, D. T. (2003). Affective forecasting. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 345-411.

See I'm competitive.....this is me reminding everyone I am the Bem bag champion!!!