Two for You — take two minutes to live and lead with intention
Episode 1.2
How do you listen to neighbors, friends and others in your community? In this episode, we look into the practice of capitalization and how you can increase its benefits through Active Constructive responses.
Resources
- Learn more about capitalization in this article, What is active constructive responding.
- Read journal article What Do You Do When Things Go Right? The Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Benefits of Sharing Positive Events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, No. 2. from Gable, S. L., Reis, H. T., Impett, E. A., & Asher, E. R. (2004).
- Find out more about Dr. Shelly Gable and her research at the EMBeR Lab site
Transcript
Note: Two for You written transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before referencing content in print.
[Lori] Welcome to episode 2 of Two for You, two minutes to live and lead with intention. On today's episode we're going to talk to you about Capitalization. So, talk to us about - what is capitalization?
[Denise] Capitalization is the process of telling someone else about a positive event. Dr. Shelley Gable, who's with UC Santa Barbara and her research talks about the benefits of being an active, constructive responder.
[Lori] Active, constructive responder - so what is that?
[Denise] An active, constructive responder is somebody who not only listens to the person telling their story or their event, but they're being engaging, they're commenting on what - you know, how great this was. Maybe they're asking questions to help that person even bring out more in the telling of that positive event.
[Lori] So if I bring to you, then, something that happened to me, it's about having kind of this active constructive response is about really validating that positive emotion that I had when I was experiencing something, but also really kind of digging in deeper to help me kind of grow and build on that.
[Denise] Right, so you would feel validated, you'd feel understood and you'd also feel closer to me as a listener
[Lori] I love that.
[Denise] So you're furthering that relationship that you already have with someone. But the cool part of this in this research is the fact that the person telling the story actually feels greater impact during the telling than experiencing the positive event itself and so it builds on that positive emotion and it helps them take that even further. It helps to further your relationships and your well-being is improved. So it's basically a win-win for you both.
[Lori] Yeah, it's great. So become an active constructive responder. Thank you, Denise, on sharing Capitalization and join us next month for the next episode of Two for You: two minutes to live and lead with intention.