UNIT 4

THE EFFECT OF EMOTIONS ON

COMMUNICATION

MRS. CHULU
Introduction

• Being able to help people regain their health gives us a great sense of
satisfaction and fulfilment. At the same time, being a health worker is a
tough job, both emotionally and physically.

• In many settings health workers face different challenges, for instance

high workload and limited time with each patient. Many health workers
report that they feel overwhelmed, stressed, frustrated and angry with
patients.
• Health workers are also afraid of getting infected or sick themselves.

• Such emotions affect our ability to communicate well.

• You will learn how emotions influence our ability to communicate.

• You will also learn about the concept of optimistic thinking and how to
deal with stress and prevent burnout.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Discuss the influence of emotions on effective communication

• Describe how to manage anger using the traffic light technique.

• Explain the relationship between our attitudes and emotions

• Outline the courses of emotional stress

• Describe three tools you would apply to deal with stress and reduce
burnout
Influence of Emotions on Effective Communication

• As a nurse, your ability to take care of others is dependent on how well you take
care of yourself.

• The ideas presented in this unit are based on positive psychology.

• Positive psychology helps us to understand our thoughts, feelings and behaviour,

with a focus on strengths instead of weaknesses.

• It helps us to create feelings of well-being, good health and personal growth .

Changing Attitudes and Behaviour

• It is normal to wish to change the behaviour and attitudes of other

people in order to improve our own lives.

• However, when you want to improve your own life, pointing your
finger at others does not work.

• You cannot change others, but you can change your reactions and your
way of communicating.

• Being aware of a problem is not enough to make one change their

• In order for people to change their behaviour, they must want to
change.

• They must realise that their current attitude or behaviour is a problem

and feel that they have good reasons to change.
Discuss what is happening to the client in the pictures
bellow
Dealing with Anger

• Anger is often a common way of expressing fear, for example, the fear of
dying, the fear of losing your job, or the fear of being stigmatised.

• Fear is experienced both by patients and health workers.

• As a nurse, you meet patients on a daily basis and you may perceive
some of them as “difficult”.

• For example, you meet patients who are angry, patients who misinform
you, patients who do not take the treatments as prescribed, and patients
An example of what you can ask them is: “I hear that you are angry,
would you like to talk about it.
If you share what happened, maybe I can help you find a solution to the
problem.
However, a natural reaction to anger is to meet anger with anger, but this
is rarely constructive and usually does not lead to a good solution.
The Traffic Light Technique for Anger Management

• When you are faced with an angry patient, the “traffic light” technique
can help you de-escalate your anger.

Imagine the following scenario;

• An angry patient enters your office and starts yelling at you.

• You feel attacked and want to yell back at the patient in order to
communicate to them that their behaviour is unacceptable.
Interpretation of the Colours
 The RED LIGHT tells you to STOP! That is, DO NOT
YELL
 The YELLOW LIGHT tells you to CALM DOWN: Take it
easy! Count to three. Breathe. WAIT.

• The GREEN LIGHT tells you, now that you are calm, you can
MOVE.

• This implies that you can now talk to the patient in a calm voice
and try to find out the reason for his or her yelling.
Traffic Light Technique for Anger Management

• You cannot always know the reason behind a patient’s

behaviour.

• However, by remaining calm, you are able to think before you

act.

• It also helps you to calm down the patient and listen to their
problem and together find a solution.
Cultivating Empathy
• Empathy can be described as the ability to “step into the shoes”
of another person and experience their emotions and perspective
(where does the shoe pinch?).
• Seeing things from another person’s viewpoint can provide us
with new information, change our perception of a situation,
giving us a new perspective.
Cultivating Empathy
Optimistic Thinking

• Developing an optimistic attitude and a positive coping style can make

one’s life more purposeful and even make one live longer.

• Positive emotions, such as hope can prevent negative feelings and

strengthen one’s ability to handle painful experiences.

• This does not mean that we should always suppress emotions such as
sorrow and anger.
• Most of us experience periods in our lives when we need to grieve and
anger can occasionally be a useful source of energy.

• The optimists believes that setbacks are only temporary obstacles that
do not have long term and far-reaching effects upon their lives.

• They believe that they are usually not to blame for the problems they
are facing.

• Moreover, when they do find that they are actually to blame, they
accept it and do not dwell on it.
• Rather, they recognize that all people make mistakes sometime and
they easily fend off their negative feelings.
The following are some examples of expressions from an optimist:
 “Oops … oh well, this can happen even to the best of us”
 “It is interesting that I could do such a thing.
 I can actually learn a lot from this”
 “There is nothing here that can’t be fixed! This is not the end of the
world”.
Characteristics of a Pessimistic Attitude
Pessimists on the other hand believe that they are the cause of the
problems they face and that negative situations have long term effects on
their future. They make comments such as :
“How typical, this always happens to me. I am so unlucky”..
“This is my destiny.
 I am a failure”
“I was born this way”.

•“I am so stupid! Why can’t I ever learn?”

Is she being pessimistic or Optimistic
Relationship Between Thoughts and Emotions

• Our emotions arise in an area of the brain called the limbic system, and
emotions such as anger and joy are reflexes.

• A response like the knee-jerk reflex also happens in your brain: what
one think, or choose to think, triggers an emotional reflex in the limbic
system

• Thus, when you want to change your emotional state of mind, the most
important thing you can do is to gain insight into what you are thinking
• The limbic system is reactive: it will listen to your thoughts.

• When you have optimistic thoughts, the limbic system will

release positive emotions that your brain will remember.

• Likewise, if you have pessimistic or negative thoughts, your

brain will react and remember accordingly.
How to Replace Negative with Positive Thoughts

• There are four steps that you can use to replace negative thoughts with
positive thoughts and therefore become a more optimistic and solution-
oriented thinker.

• The four steps include:

Step 1: Become aware of your thoughts when you have unwanted
feelings.
•When we face problems in life that create negative feelings, we must
first become aware of what we are thinking.
• We tend to focus on our feelings (I feel scared, I feel sad, I feel
frustrated), rather than looking for the thoughts that trigger
those feelings.
• In order to take control of our feelings, we need to take control
of our thoughts.
Step 2: Analyze the thoughts that are triggering the unwanted
feelings.
•First you need to find out if your thinking is rational or irrational. Ask
yourself: “Do I have proof that what I am thinking is true”?
•If your thoughts reflect a real problem, you should find out whether it is
a problem that can be solved or not.
•When you take these steps, you will be able to group your problems into
various categories, that is, problems that have solutions, problems that
have no solutions, or irrational problems.
Step 3: Replace negative thoughts with more positive and solution-
oriented thoughts.

• Whatever problem you face, it is helpful to minimize negative thoughts

and focus on solutions.

• Once you have identified your negative thoughts, you should focus on
replacing them with positive alternatives.

• This work is a process and requires your conscious effort.

Step 4: Stay focused over time so that you can internalize your new
way of thinking.
• Repeat the question “What I am thinking now?” Several times a day.
Practice switching from negative to positive emotions.
• This will help you remember that you can choose what you want to
think and feel. This takes repetition and practice: don’t give up!
Coping with Problems
• We face different challenges in life: big and small.
• As we mentioned in the last section, problems can be categorized into
three different types, namely:
Problems that have no solutions
• If you face a problem that cannot be solved, you need to apply coping
strategies in order to learn to live with the pain or loss.
• You need to learn to focus on other things other than the pain.
Problems that have solutions

• If you face a problem that can be solved, you need to direct your focus
away from any negative thoughts that can hinder you from reaching the
solution.

• There are many problems that are easy to resolve.

For examples of problems poor time management, untidiness and
disorganisation.

• If a problem is solvable, come up with an action plan that will solve

Problems caused by irrational thinking
• Irrational problems are caused by negative thinking that has no basis in
reality.
• Irrational thinking causes negative emotions.
• Some examples of irrational problems can include: a belief that no one
likes you; that you never manage to do anything right; or that you will
never find love.
• To find out if your problem is irrational or not, ask yourself the
following questions:
Dealing with Stress and Preventing Burnout

•BAs a health worker, you face a number of challenges.

• You deal with patients who suffer from infectious and deadly diseases.

• Some of your patients may be angry, some may give misleading

information, and some may stop the treatment. On top of all this, you
may have a very high workload. Fear, stigma and shame boost negative thinking,
increase stress, and may lead to low self-esteem
• Fortunately, there is a lot that you can do to manage and reduce
negative stress at work.
• The following three tools can help reduce stress and prevent burnout:
• Mindfulness meditation,
• Appreciation, and
• The “gratitude attitude”.
1 Mindfulness Meditation
• Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on
being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling in the
moment, without interpretation or judgment.
• Practicing mindfulness involves breathing methods, guided
imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and
help reduce stress.
Benefits of mindfulness meditation
If practiced regularly, mindfulness meditation can:
 Reduce anxiety and depression
 Increase self-worth
 reduce stress and prevent burnout
 strengthen the immune system
 improve memory and learning ability.
Examples of mindfulness exercises

• There are many simple ways to practice mindfulness. Some examples

include:

Pay attention.

• It's hard to slow down and notice things in a busy world. Try to take the
time to experience your environment with all of your senses — touch,
sound, sight, smell and taste. For example, when you eat a favorite
food, take the time to smell, taste and truly enjoy it.
• Live in the moment. Try to intentionally bring an open, accepting and
discerning attention to everything you do. Find joy in simple pleasures.

• Accept yourself. Treat yourself the way you would treat a good friend.

• Focus on your breathing. When you have negative thoughts, try to sit
down, take a deep breath and close your eyes. Focus on your breath as
it moves in and out of your body. Sitting and breathing for even just a
minute can help.
Appreciation

• Appreciation is built on a method called Appreciative Inquiry, which

was proposed by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva in 1987.

• This method is based on best experiences and success stories rather

than focusing on what is wrong.

• Appreciation is about seeing and enhancing the strength and potential

of ourselves and others.
• Appreciating something or someone fosters positive
relationships.

• The idea is to build on what works, rather than trying to fix

what does not work.
The “Gratitude Attitude”

• The “Gratitude Attitude” is a method where you write down the things
in life that you are grateful for.

• Thus, you can increase your level of happiness in life by taking time to
appreciate the small things in your life on a regular basis.

• Research shows that when people write down three to five things that
they are grateful for in life, it significantly increases their level of
happiness for up to a month.