The Role of Affective Flexibility in Human Development and its Contribution to Long-Term Developmental Adaptation

在拟议的项目中，我们计划调查从青春期到老年情感功能的短期变异性和长期变化之间的相互作用。我们认为情感灵活性，即情感系统适应不断变化的环境的能力，是将情感功能的短期个人变异性与长期发展适应联系起来的一个中继，例如，通过心理和身体健康、健康、社会融合或教育和职业适应的变化来表明。我们认为，情感灵活性的各个方面可以通过效价和觉醒来表征，并且这些方面在生命周期的不同阶段具有不同的适应性。这项研究的目的是调查这些说法，并为情感灵活性现象提供新的见解，特别是它如何在行为、生理和经验层面上表现出来，以及它如何在不同年龄的人群中随着时间的推移而发展。为了实现这些目标，我们提出了一个分三个阶段的调查：第一阶段是对多方法动态评估（MMAA）项目现有的纵向数据进行分析。在动态系统理论的基础上，将特别强调发展和改进新的方法来分析不同时间尺度的情感灵活性。在第二阶段，我们提出了一项新的实验研究，该研究将通过对情感情境进行良好控制的实验操作，为情感灵活性的测量提供更高的时间分辨率，并更好地控制混杂因素，来克服MMAA数据的局限性。对于第三阶段[这取决于36个月后对更新建议的积极评估，因此仅在本提交文件中简要概述]，我们提出了一个额外的纵向经验采样波，这将允许在长达12年的时间内调查短期灵活性和长期发展适应之间的关系。通过横断面和纵向数据的独特结合（约400名年龄在10岁至90岁以上的个体，依赖全额资助），新的数据分析工具，以及实地研究和实验设计的结合，我们预计情感灵活性在人类发展中的作用及其对长期发展适应的贡献的重要新见解。

In the proposed project, we plan to investigate the interplay between short-term variability and long-term change in affective functioning from adolescence to old age. We propose that affective flexibility, the capacity of the affective system to adjust to changing contexts, serves as a relay that links short-term within-person variability in affective functioning to long-term developmental adaptation, indicated, for example, by changes in psychological and physical well-being, health, social integration, or educational and professional adjustment. We maintain that facets of affective flexibility can be characterized with regard to valence and arousal, and that these facets are differentially adaptive during different phases of the life span. The aim of the proposed research is to investigate these claims and to contribute new insight into the phenomenon of affective flexibility, in particular into how it manifests at the behavioral, physiological, and experiential level, and how it develops over time in people of different ages. To achieve these goals, we propose a three-stage investigation: The first stage is concerned with the analysis of existing longitudinal data of the Multi-Method Ambulatory Assessment (MMAA) Project. Based on dynamic system theory, special emphasis will be placed on the development and refinement of new approaches to the analysis of affective flexibility across different time scales. For the second stage, we propose a new experimental study that will overcome limitations of the MMAA data through implementation of well controlled experimental manipulations of affective contexts, provision of a higher temporal resolution for the measurement of affective flexibility, and better controlling for confounding factors. For the third stage [which is contingent on a positive evaluation of a renewal proposal after 36 months and will thus only briefly be sketched in the present submission], we propose an additional longitudinal experience sampling wave which will allow investigation into associations between short-term flexibility and long-term developmental adaptation throughout a period of up to 12 years. Through a unique combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal data (about 400 individuals between the ages of 10 and 90+ dependent on full funding), new data-analytic tools, and the combination of a field study and an experimental design, we anticipate important new insights into the role of affective flexibility in human development and its contribution to long-term developmental adaptation.