Research in this area started while Holmes and Head were investigating the self image of anorexic and bulimic patients. The distorted self image of these patients became obvious. Lori Osachi developed a self help technique of self talk, which you can hear about in an NPR October 14, 2013 talk on YouTube.
Ethan Kross, is a psychologist who sort of accidentally ran a Stop light and then found himself berating himself with "Ethan, you are an idiot," and then resolved in his mind to drive more carefully. Being a psychologist the way he talked to himself in his mind aroused his interest and he began to wonder why he called himself by his first name. His research since 2010 has cast some light on the nature of our self-talk and has shown there are good and bad ways to engage in this self-talk.
From Psychology Today, the Voice of Reason: https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201505/the-voice-reason
"In a series of groundbreaking experiments, Kross has found that how people conduct their inner monologues has an enormous effect on their success in life. Talk to yourself with the pronoun I, for instance, and you’re likely to fluster and perform poorly in stressful circumstances. Address yourself by your name and your chances of acing a host of tasks, from speech making to self-advocacy, suddenly soar.
"Indeed, along with addressing a body of research by others, Kross is forcing a whole new take on what has long been ignored or relegated to pop psychology—the use of self-talk to boost confidence. His work elevates self-talk to something far more significant: a powerful instrument of consciousness itself. When deployed in very specific ways at specific times, it frees the brain to perform its absolute best.
"By toggling the way we address the self—first person or third—we flip a switch in the cerebral cortex, the center of thought, and another in the amygdala, the seat of fear, moving closer to or further from our sense of self and all its emotional intensity. Gaining psychological distance enables self-control, allowing us to think clearly, perform competently. The language switch also minimizes rumination, a handmaiden of anxiety and depression, after we complete a task. Released from negative thoughts, we gain perspective, focus deeply, plan for the future.
"Scientists studying the inner voice say it takes shape in early childhood and persists lifelong as companion and creative muse. It is so intimate, so constant, says British psychologist Charles Fernyhough, that it can be considered thought itself. “When asked by Theaetetus to define thought,” Fernyhough explains, “Socrates replied, ‘The talk which the soul has with itself.’” User beware: This talk may be misused or pushed to extremes, becoming a source of painful rumination or even psychosis. Yet it can also make us detached observers of our own life. Inner talk is one of the most effective, least-utilized tools available to master the psyche and foster success."
From the same article:
"In his initial studies of self-talk, conducted at the Emotion & Self-Control Laboratory he directs at the University of Michigan, Ethan Kross found that using one’s first name minimizes social anxiety, the fear of being evaluated in a social context—the reason most people hate public speaking. It disables social anxiety not only before the stressful event but, significantly, afterward too, when people tend to chew over their performance and find themselves lacking—what scientists coolly call “postevent processing.”
Kross asked 89 men and women to give a speech about why they were ideally qualified to land their dream job. Each participant was given five minutes to prepare. Half were instructed to use only pronouns to describe themselves in a prep document; the other half were told to use their given name. Those in the pronoun group wound up anchored in anxiety, apt to see the task as impossible. “How can I possibly write a speech in five minutes,” was a typical comment. Those who used their names felt less anxiety approaching the task and felt highly confident. “You can do it, Ethan,” was a typical exhortation in the run-up to a speech.
But the acid test was what came afterward. Those using their name performed better on the speech (judged by independent evaluators) and engaged in far less rumination after it; they also experienced less depression and felt less shame. In other studies, Kross found that using a first name empowers participants, so what others see as a threat, they see as a challenge. In giving a speech, volunteers using I felt inadequate to the task.
“When dealing with strong emotions, taking a step back and becoming a detached observer can help,” Kross explains. “It’s very easy for people to advise their friends, yet when it comes to themselves, they have trouble. But people engaging in this process, using their own first name, are distancing themselves from the self, right in the moment, and that helps them perform.”
The article goes on to talk about self affirmations. Though some people have thought that positive self talk and self affirmations are light weight fluff and don't really do much to help difficult situations. But Kross and Jason Moser, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Michigan State University found in studies that such positive affirmations do help people accomplish their goals, and even blunt the negative affect of a failure if people prepared with these positive affirmations before the task was undertaken. Find more information about these studies in the same article cited above.
Eric W., in his research, found several other interesting fact gleaned from recent research in this area: It has been found that a negative stimulus to our brain is very much stronger than a positive stimulus. It seems that negative stimuli are recorded and affect the left brain and positive stimuli affect the right brain. There is all sorts of evidence that the negative stimuli are stronger. For example people can identify negative (angry) faces quicker than positive ones. Negative stimuli and thoughts are stored in long term memory much more quickly. Positive ones take longer to store. It is estimated that it takes 5 positive stimuli to override or cancel out a negative stimuli. Probably such an emphasis on the negative provided some survival mechanisms so that humans could detect, and run away from the sabre tooth tiger more efficiently and more quickly. But in our present world, many of these adaptations, just like the fight or flight response, are self-defeating.
Self soothing talk, using your own name seems to have a self regulatory effect, is self-centering and allows access to one's own resources. Techniques that are described in several areas of this research utilize some cognitive behavioral therapy to help athletes visualize their performance in a positive way, while using the 3rd person name or pronoun. Such techniques also disrupt the anxiety cascade that is triggered by negative thoughts and rumination. They help break bad habits. They require a move from a more primitive part of the brain to a more mindfulness area of the brain.
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