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What I Felt Like Doing, but did Not Do When I Felt Hurt: An REBT-Based Investigation of Action Tendencies that are Not Acted On

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Abstract

In this questionnaire-based study, we investigated the action tendencies that 100 people reported having, but did not act on, in specific situations in which they felt hurt. An awareness of these types of unacted-on tendencies will help rational emotive behavior therapy therapists to be alert to the possible presence of hurt feelings and hurt-related motivational states that clients do not readily report experiencing in ABC analyses of hurt-related emotional episodes.

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Notes

  1. The mean and SD calculations are based on the ages of 98 of the 100 participants, as two participants did not provide their ages.

  2. The questionnaire is available from the first author.

  3. The authors would like to acknowledge that they have adapted this category description from one initially provided by Leary et al. (1998).

  4. NHS = National Health Service.

  5. The authors would like to acknowledge that they have adapted this category description from one initially provided by Vangelisti and Crumley (1998).

  6. The “distancing” and “pursue new relationships” categories discussed here are similar to Bachman and Guerrero’s (2006) factors of “active distancing” and “de-escalation.” However, Bachman and Guerrero were examining communicative responses following hurtful events whereas this paper is considering action tendencies in hurtful situations.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a Grant from the Research Capability Fund in the Department of Professional and Community Education, Goldsmiths, University of London.

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  1. STaCS, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, UK

    Windy Dryden & Nicola R. Hurton

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  1. Windy Dryden
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  2. Nicola R. Hurton
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Correspondence to Windy Dryden.

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Dryden, W., Hurton, N.R. What I Felt Like Doing, but did Not Do When I Felt Hurt: An REBT-Based Investigation of Action Tendencies that are Not Acted On. J Rat-Emo Cognitive-Behav Ther 31, 179–198 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-013-0169-9

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