Exploring the Role of Emodiversity in Preserving Empathy and Well-being in the Face of Stress

该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。这个博士后奖学金奖支持一位正在研究解决医学中同理心下降和倦怠问题的新方法的新兴学者。压力会破坏同理心的能力，并对身心健康产生不利影响。某些领域，如医学，既有高水平的压力，又需要同理心。研究发现，在医疗培训过程中，随着压力、倦怠和抑郁的增加，同理心会减少。大多数针对应对生活压力的人的心理干预（例如，医科学生、应对慢性病压力的人、应对丧亲之痛的人）都侧重于教授减轻压力和消极情绪或增加积极情绪的技能。然而，试图改善情绪可能适得其反，反而会增加压力和情绪困扰的程度。当前的项目不是试图在面对压力时控制或改善情绪，而是探索培养一种多样化的情绪储备，称为表情多样性，即个人接受和体验各种各样的情绪，包括积极的和消极的（例如，恐惧、愤怒、悲伤、快乐、满足），是否可以促进一种更平衡和灵活的方法来应对压力。具体而言，本项目考察了表情多样性在医疗培训中的保护作用，并探讨了旨在增加表情多样性的干预措施（LAVENDER：利用情感和重视同理心来培养医生的情绪弹性）是否有助于防止医疗培训中的同理心下降和倦怠。压力会缩小注意力，侵蚀同理心的能力。随着时间的推移，压力会导致倦怠，并对身心健康产生负面影响。大多数针对人们应对严重生活压力的心理干预都集中在减少压力和消极情绪，和/或增加积极情绪上。然而，越来越多的证据表明，试图改善情绪（努力减少消极情绪，增强积极情绪）可能适得其反，反而会增加压力和情绪困扰的程度。当前的项目不是强调情绪的改善，而是试图利用情感科学的最新发展来研究培养更大的情绪多样性（称为表情多样性）是否可以促进更平衡和灵活的方法来应对压力。表情多样性与良好的身体和心理健康有关，超过了积极和消极情绪平均水平的影响。从理论上讲，表情多样性可以通过防止特定情绪（如焦虑、悲伤）主导情绪生态系统来促进幸福感。本研究将探讨表情多样性是否同样可以通过允许个人体验和同情他人的情绪，从而在面对压力时防止同理心下降和倦怠，即使在高水平的压力下。目前的项目将研究表情多样性在医学实习生中的保护作用：这是一个以高压力和同理心需求为特征的人群。本项目将采用双管齐下的方法（观察和实验）：1)在两个正在进行的医学生和住院医生队列数据集中测试表情多样性、情绪、压力、同理心和幸福感之间的关系，2)开发和测试一种增加医学实习生表情多样性的干预措施（LAVENDER）。最终，该研究项目可能为支持将LAVENDER干预措施广泛整合到医学教育中提供证据，并可能促进旨在培养其他高压力职业（如警察、军队）的同理心和幸福感的干预措施、疗法和政策的发展。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. This postdoctoral fellowship award supports a rising scholar who is investigating a novel approach to addressing the problems of empathy decline and burnout in medicine. Stress disrupts the capacity for empathy, and can have adverse consequences for physical and psychological health. Certain fields, such as medicine, are characterized by both high levels of stress and the necessity for empathy. Empathy has been found to decrease over the course of medical training, as stress, burnout and depression increase. Most psychological interventions for people coping with life stress (e.g., medical students, people coping with the stress of a chronic illness, people coping with bereavement) have focused on teaching skills for reducing stress and negative emotion, or on increasing positive emotion. However, attempts at emotional improvement can backfire, and can paradoxically increase levels of stress and emotional distress. Rather than trying to control or improve emotion when confronted with stress, the current project explores whether cultivating a diverse emotional repertoire, termed emodiversity, in which the individual accepts and experiences a wide variety of emotions, both positive and negative (e.g., fear, anger, sadness, joy, contentment), may promote a more balanced and flexible approach to coping with stress. Specifically, the current project examines the protective role of emodiversity in medical training, and explores whether an intervention aimed at increasing emodiversity (LAVENDER: Leveraging Affect and Valuing Empathy for Nurturing Doctors' Emotional Resilience) may help to protect against empathy decline and burnout in medical training.Stress narrows attention and erodes the capacity for empathy. Over time, stress can lead to burnout and can negatively impact physical and psychological health. Most psychological interventions for people coping with serious life stress have focused on either reducing stress and negative emotion, and/or increasing positive emotion. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that attempts at emotional improvement (striving to reduce negative emotion and enhance positive emotion) can backfire and can paradoxically increase levels of stress and emotional distress. Rather than emphasizing emotional improvement, the current project seeks to leverage recent developments in affective science to investigate whether cultivating greater emotional diversity, termed emodiversity, may promote a more balanced and flexible approach to coping with stress. Emodiversity has been associated with superior physical and psychological well-being, over and above the effects of mean levels of positive and negative emotion. Emodiversity has been theorized to promote well-being by preventing specific emotions (e.g., anxiety, sadness) from dominating the emotional ecosystem. The present investigation will explore whether emodiversity may similarly serve to protect against empathy decline and burnout in the face of stress by allowing individuals to experience and empathize with others' emotions, even amidst high levels of stress. The current project will examine the protective role of emodiversity in medical trainees: a population characterized by both high levels of stress and the necessity for empathy. Using a two-pronged approach (both observational and experimental) this project will: 1) test the associations among emodiversity, emotion, stress, empathy, and well-being in two ongoing cohort datasets of medical students and residents, and 2) develop and test an intervention for increasing emodiversity in medical trainees (LAVENDER). Ultimately, this program of research may provide evidence to support widespread integration of the LAVENDER intervention into medical education and may facilitate the development of interventions, therapies, and policies aimed at cultivating empathy and well-being in other high-stress professions (e.g., police, military).