The Physiological Effects of Motivation and Emotion

目前的项目试图了解帮助其他有需要的人--亲社会行为--是否会减少帮助者的压力。这是一个明显重要的话题。社会心理学决定了助人为乐的人会得到情绪高涨等个人奖励。此外，最近的研究还发现，帮助别人活得更长、享受更好的帮助、更快地从伴随失去配偶的抑郁症状中恢复得更好的人。然而，目前还没有关于帮助行为的生理后果的实验研究，也没有关于心理利益是否中介帮助诱导的好处的实验研究。为了解决这一理解上的差距，这项拟议的研究调查了助人行为对心血管的影响。这一假设是为了帮助人们的行为加快心血管从压力中恢复的速度，这一假设将在一项涉及50名男性和50名女性参与者的研究中得到验证。该程序涉及采取观点的操纵和对需要帮助的人的同理心的诱导。心血管恢复的非侵入性测量(例如心率、血压)将被用来评估恢复时间。这项研究还包括同理心和积极情绪的测量，以检查情绪是否在帮助行为和从压力经历中恢复之间起到了中介作用。这项工作承诺将进一步理解帮助他人如何促进幸福和长寿。

The current project seeks to understand whether helping others in need --prosocial behavior-- reduces the stress of the helper. This is a topic of obvious importance. Social psychology has determined that individuals who help others receive personal awards such as elevated moods. In addition, recent work has also found that people who help others live longer, enjoy better help, and recover better faster from depressive symptoms that accompany spousal loss. However, there are no experimental investigations that address either the physiological consequences of helping behavior, or whether psychological benefits mediate the helping-induced benefits. To address this gap in understanding, the proposed study examines the cardiovascular effects of helping behavior. The hypothesis, that helping behavior speeds the cardiovascular recovery from a stress-inducing experience, will be tested in a study involving 50 male and 50 female participants. The procedure involves the manipulation of perspective-taking and inducement of empathic concern for a person in need. Non-invasive measures of cardiovascular recovery (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure) will be used to assess recovery time. The study also includes measures of empathy and positive emotions to examine whether emotions mediate a link between helping behavior and recovery from the stressful experience. This work promises to further understanding of how helping others promote well-being and longevity.