Maintenance of Positive Affect Following Pain in Older Adults

描述（由申请人提供）：在65岁以上的老年人中，高达80%的人报告经历过某种程度的身体疼痛，然而老年人在面对疼痛时似乎非常善于保持积极的情绪。尽管研究发现，老年人在控制疼痛方面至少和年轻人一样好，但他们使用的策略在很大程度上仍然未知。在假设老年人策略性地使用积极增强机制的社会情感选择框架的指导下，本研究的主要目的是调查老年人和年轻人在面对疼痛时是否在使用积极机制来保持积极影响方面存在差异。此外，人们对使一些老年人比其他人更能应对疼痛的因素知之甚少。先前的研究表明，高水平的执行功能（EF）和心率变异性（HRV）预示着那些经历疼痛的人的积极的身体健康结果，但迄今为止还没有研究调查这些因素的个体差异如何与疼痛相互作用，从而影响积极的影响。因此，该项目的第二个目的是测试EF或HRV是否调节老年人疼痛和维持积极情绪之间的关系。该项目的两个目标都有助于实现一个更大的目标，即扩大对促进老年人健康和心理健康的因素的理论知识。拟议中的项目将使PI获得宝贵的技能，并通过使用实验实验室和档案数据来测试与这两个目标相关的假设，扩展他以前的研究经验。在实验室研究中，老年人和年轻人将被要求提供影响、EF和HRV数据。他们将被随机分配到一个痛苦或非痛苦的任务。在疼痛任务之后，参与者将接受评估积极机制的任务，然后被要求提供最终的影响评级。将使用社区居住老年人的纵向档案数据集来测试人们的疼痛水平是否与EF相互作用以预测积极影响。假设：1)老年人在痛苦时，会比年轻人更成功地使用积极增强机制；2)老年人在疼痛后保持积极情绪的能力强于年轻人；3) EF和HRV较好的人在面对疼痛时最能有效地保持积极情绪。除了提供关于疼痛后如何保持积极影响的理论见解外，该项目还将为促进健康研究的多样性这一更大目标作出贡献，为西班牙裔第一代大学生PI提供培训机会，培养成为独立研究人员所需的技能。为此，该项目包括一个详细的计划，旨在建立和扩大PI传播前沿研究的能力，学习新的统计和方法技术，并扩大他对疼痛经历的心理和生理后果的研究项目。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Up to 80% of those over age 65 report experiencing some degree of physical pain, yet older adults appear remarkably adept at maintaining positive emotionality in the face of pain. Whereas studies find that older adults are at least as good at managing pain as their younger counterparts, the strategies they use to do so remain largely unknown. Guided by a socio-emotional selectivity framework which posits that older adults strategically use positivity-enhancing mechanisms, the proposed research has a primary aim of investigating whether older and younger adults differ in their use of positivity mechanisms to maintain positive affect in the face of pain. Additionally, little is known about the factors that make some older adults better able to cope with pain than others. Previous research has shown that high levels of executive functioning (EF) and heart rate variability (HRV) predict positive physical health outcomes for those experiencing pain, but no research to date has examined how individual differences in these factors interact with pain to influence positive affect. Thus, the proposed project has a second aim of testing whether EF or HRV moderate the relationship between pain and maintenance of positive affect in older adults. Both of the aims of the project contribute to a larger goal of expanding theoretical knowledge of factors contributing to health and psychological wellbeing in older age. The proposed project will allow the PI to gain invaluable skills and expand on his previous research experiences by using experimental laboratory and archival data to test hypotheses pertaining to both aims. In the laboratory study, older and younger adults will be asked to provide affect, EF, and HRV data. They will be randomly assigned to a painful or non-painful task. After the pain task, participants will undergo tasks assessing positivity mechanisms and will then be asked to provide a final affect rating. An archival longitudinal dataset of community-dwelling older adults will be used to test whether pain levels interact with EF within people to predict positive affect. It is hypothesized that 1) when i pain, older adults will use positivity-enhancing mechanisms with greater success than younger adults; 2) older adults will maintain positive affect following pain better than younger adults; an 3) those with better EF and HRV will be most effective at maintaining positive affect in the face of pain. In addition to providing theoretical insight into how positive affect is maintained after pain, the project will contribute to a larger objective of promoting diversity in health research b providing the PI - a Hispanic first generation college student - a training opportunity to develop the skills necessary to become an independent researcher. To this end, the project includes a detailed plan designed to build on and expand the PI's ability to disseminate cutting-edge research, learn novel statistical and methodological techniques, and expand his research program on the psychological and physiological consequences of the pain experience.