Thought team: use of a perspective-taking strategy to enhance personal problem solving while thinking, writing, or mapping

Abstract

Research has shown that therapeutic writing improves an individual's sense of well-being. Positive affective and conceptual transformations resulting from the effects of disinhibition and cognitive reconstructing have been implicated in this process (Clark, 1993). The current study examined whether the restructuring might be enhanced by the development of a set of mental advisors, the Thought Team strategy (Atha-Weldon & Dansereau, 2001; Czuchry & Sia, 1998), to manipulate the problem schema while thinking, writing, or mapping. Analyses revealed significant effects in short-term and long-term outcomes for strategy and format in participant satisfaction and motivation (motivation, value, personal effort, continuation, influence), for emotional adjustments (emotional control, coping and managing, general hardiness, personal interests, concern), and for cognitive benefits (ideas, organization, coherence and understanding, creativity, mental imagery, effectiveness, extremeness, insight, and solvability).