When and how do memory narratives function to regulate anger and sadness?

描述（由申请人提供）：鉴于情绪对一系列心理和身体过程的影响，包括注意力、感知、记忆、生理唤醒、应激反应和发展结果，调节情绪是一项重要的发展成就。该提案的中心目标是1)与其他既定的情绪调节形式相比，建立记忆叙述在愤怒和悲伤的持续下行调节中的有效性-主观和生理评估；2)确定记忆叙事在对经历作出反应时减少愤怒和悲伤的机制；3)在童年中期和青春期早期，记忆叙述何时可以首先用于下调愤怒和悲伤；4)儿童和青少年在成人叙事建构的帮助下，是否能够有效地利用记忆叙事来减少愤怒和悲伤。拟议的研究在叙述的构建过程中以及在随后的场合中重新暴露于情绪事件时检查愤怒和悲伤，以测试记忆叙述是否有助于以持久的方式降低愤怒和悲伤。四项研究采用实验和横断面设计来回答这些问题。第一项研究将成年人记忆叙事的构建与其他有充分记录的情绪调节策略（重新评估和分散注意力）进行了比较。第二项研究对比了不同类型的记忆叙事引出，以确定叙事对成年人情绪调节的关键特征。第三项研究确定了叙述有效调节儿童和青少年愤怒和悲伤的年龄。第四项研究评估了儿童和青少年在成人帮助下构建叙事时，是否能在早期有效地使用叙事来下调情绪。所有的研究都通过自我报告和生理测量（呼吸性窦性心律失常和皮肤电导水平）来评估情绪反应和调节。本研究的结果将为在规范样本中使用记忆叙事构建服务于情绪调节提供指导，通过阐明记忆叙事构建服务于情绪调节的机制，并通过概述在有和没有专家成人支架的情况下，记忆叙事在发展上何时服务于情绪调节提供指导。研究结果还将记忆叙事构建与已知的情绪调节策略（如重新评估和分散注意力）进行了比较。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Regulating emotion is a critical developmental achievement, given the impact of emotion on an array of psychological and physical processes, including attention, perception, memory, physiological arousal, stress responses, and developmental outcomes. The central aims of the proposal are 1) to establish the effectiveness of memory narratives in the lasting down- regulation of anger and sadness- both subjective and physiologically assessed, as compared to other established forms of emotion regulation; 2) to identify the mechanisms by which memory narratives serve to reduce anger and sadness in response to experiences; 3) to demonstrate when, across middle childhood and early adolescence, memory narratives can first serve to down-regulate anger and sadness; and 4) whether, children and younger adolescents can effectively use memory narratives to reduce anger and sadness when they are assisted in narrative construction by an adult. The proposed studies examine anger and sadness both during the construction of narratives and during re-exposure to the emotional events on subsequent occasions, in order to test whether memory narratives help to down-regulate anger and sadness in lasting ways. Four studies employ experimental and cross-sectional designs to answer these questions. A first study compares the construction of memory narratives among adults to other, well-documented strategies for emotion regulation: re-appraisal and distraction. A second study contrasts different types of memory narrative elicitations to identify the critical features of narrative for emotion regulation among adults. A third study identifies the age at which narratives effectively serve to regulate anger and sadness for children and adolescents. The fourth study assesses whether children and younger adolescents can use narratives effectively to down-regulate emotion at earlier ages when they are provided with adult assistance to construct the narratives. All studies assess emotional reactivity and regulation via self-report and physiological measures (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Skin Conductance Level). The findings of the proposed studies will provide guidance for using memory narrative construction in the service of emotion regulation among normative samples, by illuminating the mechanisms by which memory narrative construction can serve to regulate emotions, and by outlining when, developmentally, memory narratives come to serve emotion regulation with and without expert adult scaffolding. The findings also provide comparisons of memory narrative construction with known strategies for emotion regulation, such as reappraisal and distraction. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed project will examine whether, when, and how the construction of memory narratives about anger and sadness experiences helps to reduce anger and sadness about those events. Effective emotion regulation is fundamental to mental health; understanding the ways people can engage in effective regulation of emotions is important for developing interventions to improve emotion regulation in individuals. Memory narratives represent an ecologically valid strategy for reducing negative emotion, and the proposed project would demonstrate their utility and provide information about the age at which children and adolescents are able to use memory narratives, and what features of narratives are crucial for regulating emotions.