Comparative Automaticity of Fear

恐惧的比较自动性

• 批准号: 9817649
• 负责人: Karl Rosengren
• 金额: $ 30.93万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-06-15 至 2003-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9817649&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Comparative; Automaticity; Fear

Lay conceptions of emotion often emphasize the reflexive nature of emotional reactions. An insult, for example, might quickly give rise to anger, seemingly with little deliberation or thought. This view has recently received support in biological, clinical, and social psychology. The current research challenges this view, suggesting that it may apply only for a limited set of emotions. The available evidence indicates both qualitative and quantitative differences between fear and other emotions, with fear being the one emotion that can be triggered in the absence of conscious processing or attention. However, this hypothesis is based on a comparison of separate studies using a diversity of methods. Systematic comparisons among different emotions are virtually nonexistent within the context of the same experiment. Six studies will test differences between fear, sadness, disgust, happiness, and excitement using emotional slides and computerized timing. A variety of behavioral, cognitive, subjective, and physiological measures are included in the analysis. From a biological perspective, it is sensible that people are capable of responding to potential threats as rapidly as possible, irrespective of their prior plans and conscious thoughts. However, rapid responding is less important in other types of emotional situations, and flexible, thoughtful responding tends to be more adaptive when there are no immediate threats to safety. It is therefore proposed that biology has prepared humans to respond rapidly to potential threats, but not to other types of emotional situations. Only careful, controlled studies can provide empirical support for this hypothesis. The results are likely to have major theoretical significance, and may inform future therapeutic interventions.

外行人对情绪的概念往往强调情绪反应的反身性。例如，一个侮辱可能很快引起愤怒，似乎没有经过深思熟虑或思考。这一观点最近得到了生物学、临床和社会心理学的支持。目前的研究挑战了这一观点，表明它可能只适用于有限的一组情绪。现有的证据表明，恐惧和其他情绪之间存在质和量的差异，恐惧是一种可以在没有意识处理或注意的情况下触发的情绪。然而，这一假设是基于对使用多种方法的单独研究的比较。在同一个实验的背景下，不同情绪之间的系统比较几乎是不存在的。六项研究将使用情绪幻灯片和计算机计时来测试恐惧、悲伤、厌恶、快乐和兴奋之间的差异。分析中包括各种行为、认知、主观和生理测量。从生物学的角度来看，人们能够尽快对潜在的威胁做出反应，而不管他们事先的计划和有意识的想法。然而，在其他类型的情绪情况下，快速反应并不那么重要，当没有直接的安全威胁时，灵活、周到的反应往往更具适应性。因此，有人提出，生物学已经使人类准备好对潜在的威胁做出快速反应，但对其他类型的情绪情况却没有。只有仔细的对照研究才能为这一假设提供实证支持。这些结果可能具有重大的理论意义，并可能为未来的治疗干预提供信息。