Collaborative Research: An emotion-motivation-obstruction approach to waiting and worry

人们经常面临必须等待重要消息的情况。它可能是医学测试的结果，工作面试的结果，或金融投资的表现。对于许多人来说，这段时间可能是不愉快和有压力的，并且可以采用各种（通常无效的）应对策略，以尽量减少在这段不确定的等待期间的不适。过去对不确定等待期的研究主要集中在描述这一现象上——确定人们在这一时期的情绪感受和应对策略。人们选择特定应对策略的原因，以及在各种情况下哪些策略是有效的，这些都是未知的。虽然早期的研究已经证实，人们在等待不确定的消息时感到焦虑的主要原因是高度焦虑，但很少有研究解决这种担忧来自哪里，或者为什么人们在等待期间会如此强烈地感到焦虑的问题。这个项目旨在回答这些悬而未决的问题。这项研究的中心前提是，人们在某些不确定的时期会感到担忧，因为担忧是有目的的：它激励人们防止坏事发生。然而，只有当人们对自己的结果有所控制时，担忧才能发挥这种有用的作用。在不确定的等待期——比如在医学检查之后，但在得知结果之前——担心不起作用，因为在那个时候，人们无法控制结果。八项实验室实验和一项实地研究调查了人们在发现自己陷入这种紧张的等待期时是如何应对焦虑的。通过更好地了解人们如何应对这种情况的不确定性，可以制定干预措施，以帮助减少不适，并将精力转向更有成效和更健康的方向。这个项目发展了一个广泛的理论框架来理解情绪和应对。情绪-动机-障碍（EMO）模型汇集了两个相关但基本不相关的研究领域：情绪的行动准备理论和情境特异性应对过程的研究。有人提出，当环境阻止人们参与与情绪相关的行动倾向时（在担心的情况下防止坏结果），他们将选择旨在降低情绪或重新定向行动倾向的应对策略。本研究通过对焦虑和等待情境下的EMO模型进行检验，为该框架在一个具有较强理论背景的领域内进行了具有指导意义的初步检验。该项目调查了威胁的不确定性如何引发担忧，并反过来研究了其预防动机和最终预防行为的行动倾向。该项目还关注预防行为不可行的情况（由于缺乏控制），并测试旨在下调担忧或重定向预防动机的应对努力是否会减少人们对担忧的体验和执行其行动倾向的冲动。长期目标是了解这些动态对健康和福祉的影响。多方法实验方法通过自我报告、行为观察和相关生理反应评估来实现这些目标。这项研究的发现可以作为干预的基础，以减少担忧和其他负面情绪体验，并引导人们采取应对策略，这可能是最有效的减轻这些经历对健康和福祉的影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

People often face situations in which they must wait to learn important news. It may be the results of a medical test, the outcome of a job interview, or the performance of financial investments. These periods can be unpleasant and stressful for many people, and a variety of (often ineffective) coping strategies may be adopted in an effort to minimize the discomfort during these uncertain waiting periods. Past research on uncertain waiting periods has primarily focused on describing the phenomenon – identifying the emotions people feel and the coping strategies they use during these periods. What is still unknown are the reasons people choose specific coping strategies and which strategies are effective under various conditions. Although earlier work has established that high levels of worry are the primary reason people feel distress while awaiting uncertain news, little research has tackled the questions of where this worry comes from or why people experience it so intensely during waiting periods. This project aims to answer these unanswered questions. The central premise of the research is that people experience worry during some periods of uncertainty because worry serves a purpose: It motivates people to prevent bad things from happening. However, worry can only serve this useful function when people have some control over their outcome. During uncertain waiting periods – such as that following a medical test but before learning the results – worry cannot do its job because people have no control over the outcome at that point. Eight laboratory-based experiments and one field study investigate how people cope with worry when they find themselves trapped in such stressful waiting periods. By better understanding how people cope with the uncertainty of such situations, interventions may be developed to help reduce the discomfort and redirect energy in more productive and healthy directions.This project develops a broad theoretical framework for understanding emotions and coping. The emotion-motivation-obstruction (EMO) model brings together two related but largely disconnected areas of study: the action readiness theory of emotions and research on situation-specific coping processes. It is proposed that when circumstances prevent people from engaging in the action tendency associated with an emotion (preventing a bad outcome in the case of worry), they will select coping strategies that aim to down-regulate the emotion or to redirect the action tendency. By testing the EMO model in the context of worry and waiting, this research provides an instructive initial test of the framework in a domain with strong theoretical background. The project investigates how threatening uncertainty prompts worry, and in turn, its action tendency of prevention motivation and ultimately preventive behavior. The project also focuses on situations in which preventive behavior is not feasible (due to a lack of control) and tests whether coping efforts directed toward down-regulating worry or redirecting prevention motivation reduce people’s experience of worry and the urge to carry out its action tendency. A longer-term aim is to understand the consequences of these dynamics for health and well-being. A multi-method experimental approach addresses these goals, using self-report, behavioral observation, and assessments of related physiological responses. The findings of this research can serve as the basis for interventions to reduce worry and other negative emotional experiences, and to steer people toward coping strategies that are likely to be most effective for mitigating the health and well-being consequences of these experiences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.