Cognitive processes supporting emotion regulation choices

支持情绪调节选择的认知过程

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-06425
• 负责人: Ortner, Catherine
• 金额: $ 1.85万
• 依托单位: Thompson Rivers University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=716116
• 关键词: Cognitive; processes; supporting; emotion; regulation

Emotion regulation how we increase, decrease, or maintain our feelings is essential to mental health and well-being. People choose from upwards of 20 strategies when regulating negative feelings, and these strategies vary in their effectiveness and long-term outcomes. For example, reappraisal (changing how you think about a situation to change your feelings) is effective for reducing negative feelings and leads to positive mental health outcomes. Distraction (focusing attention on something unrelated to the negative event to change how you feel) is effective in the short-term but can have negative consequences in the long-term if it is continued and leads to avoidance of situations. Therefore, it is critical to understand how and why people choose particular strategies in certain contexts. In laboratory studies, people prefer reappraisal to distraction to regulate their emotions in response to low intensity negative images, and vice versa for high intensity negative images. One leading theory explains this observation by suggesting that initially, we are automatically driven to disengage attention from negative events, and therefore distract. However, we can overcome this bias by exerting ourselves and considering the long-term consequences of our regulatory choices (i.e., to choose reappraisal instead of distraction). Presumably, when the intensity is too high, reappraisal is more difficult and less likely to be effective, and our automatic tendency to disengage from the negative event may overwhelm our ability to consider alternative ways of regulating. The goal of my research program is to uncover the mechanisms underlying how people choose between strategies. Methods include measuring individuals' pupil dilation and movements of the computer mouse when making choices between reappraisal and distraction. Pupil dilation is a quantitative measure that reflects cognitive effort: we predict that pupil dilation will be greater when individuals engage effortfully to make the more adaptive long-term emotion regulation choice (i.e., choosing reappraisal). Evidence of effortful choice should also be reflected in the computer mouse movements when individuals click a button on a computer screen to choose either reappraisal or distraction. We predict that the mouse trajectory will move more towards distraction when choosing reappraisal for high intensity emotional images, compared to when choosing reappraisal for low intensity emotional images. On the other hand, we may learn that making emotion regulation choices is not effortful, even when choosing reappraisal for high intensity emotional images. The results will go beyond previous research to help uncover how people make emotion regulation choices and inform theory on this topic. By elucidating how people choose among different strategies, we can determine which behaviours to target to develop tools to support effective emotion regulation in everyday life, and therefore improve well-being.

情绪调节我们如何增加，减少或保持我们的感觉对心理健康和幸福至关重要。人们在调节消极情绪时会选择20多种策略，这些策略的有效性和长期效果各不相同。例如，重新评估（改变你对一种情况的看法以改变你的感受）可以有效地减少负面情绪，并带来积极的心理健康结果。分散注意力（将注意力集中在与负面事件无关的事情上，以改变你的感受）在短期内是有效的，但如果持续下去，并导致回避情况，从长期来看可能会产生负面后果。因此，理解人们在特定环境下如何以及为什么选择特定策略至关重要。 在实验室研究中，人们更喜欢重新评价，而不是分心，以调节他们的情绪，以应对低强度的负面图像，反之亦然，高强度的负面图像。一个主流理论解释了这一现象，认为最初，我们会自动地将注意力从负面事件中分离出来，从而分散注意力。然而，我们可以通过努力并考虑我们的监管选择的长期后果来克服这种偏见（即，选择重新评价而不是分散注意力）。可以推测，当强度太高时，重新评价就更加困难，也不太可能有效，我们自动脱离负面事件的倾向可能会压倒我们考虑其他调节方式的能力。 我的研究项目的目标是揭示人们如何在策略之间进行选择的潜在机制。方法包括测量个体在重新评价和分心之间做出选择时瞳孔的扩张和电脑鼠标的移动。瞳孔扩张是反映认知努力的定量测量：我们预测，当个体努力做出更适应性的长期情绪调节选择时，瞳孔扩张会更大（即，选择重新评估）。当个体点击电脑屏幕上的一个按钮来选择重新评价或分散注意力时，电脑鼠标的移动也反映了努力选择的证据。我们预测，鼠标轨迹将更多地走向分心时，选择重新评价高强度的情感图像，相比，当选择重新评价低强度的情感图像。另一方面，我们可能会了解到，做出情绪调节选择并不费力，即使是在选择重新评价高强度情绪图像时。 研究结果将超越以往的研究，帮助揭示人们如何做出情绪调节选择，并为这一主题提供理论依据。通过阐明人们如何在不同的策略中进行选择，我们可以确定针对哪些行为来开发工具，以支持日常生活中有效的情绪调节，从而改善幸福感。