Ironic Processes

Definition

In almost all English dictionaries, one meaning of irony (i.e., that which is ironic) refers to an unexpected outcome or a surprising consequence. Social psychologists, however, reference ironic processes predicated upon the inner workings of the mind. Thus, ironic processes are mental processes. What is ironic is the nature of a person's mental processing, such as an unexpected change in thoughts, internal images, feelings, attitudes, and so forth. A good way to understand the social psychological meaning of ironic processes is by a demonstration. The following example is similar to the one used in the initial studies of the ironic processes that occur during mental control, particularly during thought suppression.

While reading the rest of this brief description about ironic processes, simply follow this basic instruction: Try not to think of a white bear. It is worth [Page 505]noting that the instruction not to think of a white bear is an instruction to suppress a thought. To comprehend the instruction, the reader brings to mind an image or memory of a white bear, maybe one that he or she saw at a zoo, read in National Geographic, or saw on the Discovery channel. For some, the image of a white bear appears effortlessly (i.e., pops into mind); others consciously scan memory until a white bear surfaces. Yet, the instruction was not to think about the white bear. Try it: Do not think of a white bear. This discussion will return to the white bear later.

Background and History

Research on ironic processes by Daniel M. Wegner and his colleagues has yielded fundamental and important conclusions. The explanation of ironic processes during thought suppression is that a person's mind simultaneously engages in two distinct processes. Each process is involved with a specific mental task. This is the ironic process theory.

In theory, one of the processes occurs when a person deliberately tries to suppress an image or memory from his or her mind. To suppress a thought successfully, a person may repeatedly attempt to decrease a thought's occurrence, ideally, until the thought appears in the mind's eye no more. To do this takes mental effort: This is the operating process. During ironic processing, another process works in tandem with the operating process.

The second process is the monitoring process. The monitoring process is a less effortful mental process. In theory, during thought suppression, a person makes a mental note to wait and then see if an uninvited thought recurs. The monitoring process checks for instances of the thought to be suppressed. When the monitoring process detects an unwanted thought (e.g., while on a diet, you notice the recurrent mental image of your favorite dessert food), the operating process attempts to replace the unwanted thought with something else (e.g., you try to distract yourself by reading the newspaper). If both processes operated harmoniously all of the time, people would be quite proficient at suppressing undesired thoughts. So far, there is nothing ironic about the ironic process theory.

In laboratory studies, when a person became sufficiently occupied with other tasks besides trying to suppress an unwanted thought, fewer mental resources were available for the person to attend to his or her operating process. In these studies, participants knew that their goal was to suppress a thought. However, when their attention and mental focus shifted from thought suppression to other new mental activities, the conscious pursuit of suppressing a thought decreased or stopped, but the monitoring process continued.

...