The only way I am like the Dallas Cowboys.....

Ironic Mental Processes

I like to pride myself in knowing my own strengths and weaknesses. I know I am good at soccer and tennis (especially after having played both sports since I was five), just like I know I am bad at dancing. Growing up I was always a tomboy. As such, I preferred soccer camp to dance camp every single time. I lived in a blissfully ignorant world thinking I would never have to dance. Because I chose to attend a liberal arts school, I am required to take a performing arts credit. Wanting to choose a class for my last semester of college that would leave me with plenty of time to focus on social psychology, I chose to take jazz dance. I thought to myself it would be fun and not too demanding. Come to find out I was completely wrong and came out of my fist class with a syllabus that said one of my course objectives was to “move to the beat” and a reaction similar to this.

In spite of my hesitations, I was determined to get over my non-dancing Jewish white girl stereotype and successfully master moving to the beat. After two weeks of learning my dance, today it was time to perform the dance in small groups in from of the ENTIRE class. In the days leading up to class I practiced many times. I knew the dance backwards and forwards. However, after practicing many times I noticed that I started to over think things that had come so naturally me, things I had never gotten wrong before; I would freeze up and “choke” (Baumeister, 1984). Baumeister (1984) noted this concept as part of self-control; that when individuals try to become so self-focused, especially under pressure, it usually ends with “choking” as a result of trying too hard or thinking too much. I tried so hard and thought about the dance constantly. In my head I envisioned that I was dancing flawlessly, however it came out more like this video of Justin Timberlake and others trying to dance like Beyoncé.

In being a knowledgeable social psychology student who does her readings, I was conscious of this notion and thus started thinking about chocking. I know that consistently thinking of chocking was only going to make my dancing worse and was thus succumbing to ironic processes (Wegner, 1994). Ironic processing is basically when, in trying so hard to suppress, ignore or inhibit a feeling thought or behavior, it becomes even harder to ignore or succeed (Wegner, 1994). Specifically, in my case, every time I tried not to think about messing up my dance or chocking, I ended up thinking about it even more and ended up chocking worse than before.

(n = 457)

I ended up not doing too bad on my dance – I distracted myself with humors YouTube videos absent of dancing. However, I like to further test all concepts I learn about, therefore I leave you with this video and DARE you not to think about it and or sing it the rest of the day. 

*fun fact - these children go on tour to sing this song (I say this song because I don't know if they have any other songs)
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Baumeister, R. F. (1984). Chocking under pressure: Self-consciousness and paradoxical effects of incentives on skillful performances. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 610-620.

Wegner, D. M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34-52.

5anal (2011, February 13). Beyonce and Justin Timberlake - single ladies. Retrieved on February 5, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLVY5VTanJc.

13twentythree (2012, August 6). Hot Cheetos & Takis [HD]. Retrieved on February 5, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YLy4j8EZIk.