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的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，即情感系统对不断变化的环境进行调整的能力，是将情感功能的短期人内变异性与长期发展适应联系起来的中继器，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唤醒来表征，并且这些方面在生命的不同阶段是不同的适应性。这项拟议的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，特别是它是如何在行为、生理和经验水平上表现出来的，以及它如何在不同年龄的人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：第一阶段是关于分析现有的多方法动态评估(MMAA)项目的纵向数据。在动态系统理论的基础上，将特别强调开发和改进新的方法来分析不同时间尺度上的情感灵活性。对于第二阶段，我们提出了一项新的实验研究，通过实施良好控制的情感情境实验操作，为测量情感灵活性提供更高的时间分辨率，以及更好地控制混杂因素，将克服MMAA数据的局限性。对于第三阶段[这取决于36个月后对续签提案的正面评价，因此仅在本呈件中简要概述]，我们提议增加一个纵向经验抽样波，以便能够在长达12年的时间内调查短期灵活性与长期发展适应之间的联系。通过横断面和纵向数据的独特组合(约400名年龄在10岁到90岁以上的人依赖全额资助)，新的数据分析工具，以及实地研究和实验设计的结合，我们期待着对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.