Cognitive Restructuring Interventions to Transform the "Lying Flat" Mindset and Promote Positive Emotions in College Students

With the popularisation of higher education and the expansion of the young student population, the mental health of university students has received increasing attention from all sectors of society. Among them, the newly popular phenomenon of "lying flat", i.e., the behavioural attitudes of university students that show negative idleness and resistance to mainstream values, poses a potential challenge to their positive emotions and psychological adaptations. The present study was conducted with a sample of 1,022 college students to investigate the effects of cognitive restructuring strategies in different contexts on improving the phenomenon of "flatness" and promoting positive emotions by applying the theory of psychological restructuring and the concept of positive psychology. A randomised controlled trial was conducted, in which subjects were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group, and the "cognitive restructuring training" was administered to each group, and the traditional psychological counselling methods were used to collect the changes in psychological indicators such as psychological resilience, emotion regulation ability and self-efficacy before and after the experimental period. The data were analysed by SPSS 22.0 statistical software, and multiple linear regression and path analysis were used to quantify the effects of cognitive restructuring intervention on the psychological phenomenon of lying flat and the enhancement of positive emotions. The results showed that compared with the control group, the college students in the experimental group, after receiving 8 weeks of cognitive restructuring training, showed significant improvement in their psychological resilience and emotion regulation ability, enhanced self-efficacy, effective alleviation of the lying flat mentality, and a significant upward trend in the overall level of positive emotions. This study further used focus group interviews and in-depth case analysis to analyse the effective mechanisms of the cognitive restructuring intervention process, and found that self-acceptance, goal resetting and cognitive restructuring of challenging states were the key intervention points to promote the enhancement of positive emotions. The article concludes with recommendations for the extension of the intervention based on its effectiveness, aiming to provide scientific intervention tools and practical guidance for the field of mental health education in colleges and universities, which can help optimise the psychological development environment of college students and promote the formation of positive attitudes towards mental health and career planning.