What does b stand for in the ABC theory of emotion regulation?

In the ABC theory of emotions, the full name of B is Belief, which refers to our belief, cognitive evaluation and interpretation of the triggering event that has occurred. In layman's terms, it is how you view this event at the moment.

When many people first come into contact with emotion regulation, they always feel that "I am unhappy because of that bad thing", that is, the default event A directly leads to the emotional and behavioral outcome C. But in fact, the core point of this theory is that A is just the fuse, and the B in the middle is the core switch that determines the direction of your emotions. To put it bluntly, if the same thing happens to different people, their emotional reactions will be very different. The difference is the difference in B. To take the most common example, you are stuck on an elevated highway during the morning rush hour and are about to lose your perfect attendance award because you are late. This is common event A. If the thought that pops up in your mind is "Why am I so unlucky? The boss will definitely target me for being late, and my livelihood will be ruined today." Then there is a high probability that you will get more and more angry after thinking about it, honking the horn frantically to get angry at the traffic jam, and even fill out the report incorrectly when you arrive at the company. But if your thought is, "The traffic jam is beyond my control, so I just need these ten minutes to go over the outline of today's report. If I'm really late, I can just fill in the application with the human resources." Then there is a high probability that you can be steady, and you can even use the fragmented time, and the final emotional result will be completely different. For example, B is like the photo retouching filter on your mobile phone. For the same original image (event A), applying a cold filter will produce a depressing and gloomy effect, while applying a warm filter will produce a bright and relaxing effect. This filter is B.

Of course, many practitioners have put forward different views over the years. Do they think this logic has a tendency of "excessive inward attribution"? It was obviously someone else who offended me, and it was obviously something bad that came to my door. Do I still have to blame myself for not being able to think about it? In fact, this is a common misunderstanding about B. When we talk about adjusting B, we never ask you to force-feed yourself chicken soup or force yourself to be "optimistic" even though you have been wronged. Rather, it allows you to jump out and see if there are any unreasonable beliefs that emerge out of your control in your current interpretation - such as catastrophizing and thinking about the worst outcome when encountering a small problem, assuming that the other person hates you with an unintentional look, and denying all your abilities if you fail to do well. These automatic biased cognitions are the B that we need to adjust. What I often say when doing emotional regulation cases myself is that you don’t have to force yourself to “be happy” immediately. Stop and look at the thought that just flashed through your mind. If you find that B, the emotional knot has already been loosened by half.