Absolutist thinking and health.

Abstract

Absolutist thinking has been identified in therapeutic studies as a style of thinking which is believed to promote emotional distress, particularly anger, when people are confronted by situations which do not conform to their demands concerning what ought to happen. It is not a discrete thought process, however, but a key aspect of a framework of beliefs and reactions which are thought to make people vulnerable to poor psychological and physical health when faced with personal, domestic or work problems. This thinking style was assessed in a study of the coping behaviour of headteachers to examine associations between absolutist thinking, coping behaviour and health. The headteachers were classified as absolutist (N = 49) or non-absolutist (N = 31) in the ways they handled two work problems, one with a 'successful' outcome, the other with an 'unsuccessful' outcome. In line with predictions, statistically significant differences were found between the two groups when using multivariate and univariate analyses. Absolutist headteachers experienced their job demands as less pleasant, and perceived themselves to be less effective at managing their emotions for both problems; they perceived themselves as producing less 'successful' outcomes for the successful problem, as handling this problem less effectively, and as having poorer psychological and physical health.