Bryce: After a year of applying, interviewing, jumping through all the hoops, I finally realized nothing I did mattered. I just couldn’t take another rejection. The bottom line is, no one wants me.
Bryce: I guess I’m not feeling much of anything.
Bryce: No. It’s okay. I’ve just felt too hopeless to talk to anyone.
One example of an obstacle to communicating emotions in the situation is fear (Karalus, 2014). Bryce fears what the future holds because of his employment status or the lack thereof. He also fears that his friend Todd might mock him for still not having a job after six months. Another obstacle is gender differences (Karalus, 2014). Men usually find it more difficult to express their emotions. This can be seen when Todd asked Bryce how he was feeling and Bryce responded, “I guess I’m not feeling much of anything.”
One irrational belief that Bryce holds is that no employer wants him and that’s why he stopped applying for jobs. However, the truth is that most people usually don’t land the first job they apply to. They, too, apply to many jobs before they get hired. Another irrational fear Bryce has is that he’s going to lose everything – his wife, his kids, his home, and others. He has no basis for this, and he can prevent this from happening if he can only start thinking positively and do something about his situation.
Bryce can use surface acting by appearing enthusiastic and behaving in a positive manner when applying for a job even when he feels desperate ad pessimistic inside. On the other hand, he can use deep acting by imagining a bright future with his family so that he would also appear happy and behave positively when applying for a job.
These 3 strategies are the following: owning his feelings; monitoring his self-talk; and adopting a rational-emotive approach to feelings.
References
Karalus, K. (2014, December 15). Obstacles to communicating emotions. Retrieved from
https://prezi.com/nqu-yovtydx-/obstacles-to-communicating-emotions/
