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

描述(申请人提供)：鉴于情绪对一系列心理和生理过程的影响，包括注意力、知觉、记忆、生理唤醒、压力反应和发育结果，调节情绪是一项关键的发展成就。该提案的中心目标是：1)确定记忆叙事在持久下调愤怒和悲伤方面的有效性--与其他已建立的情绪调节形式相比，包括主观和生理评估；2)确定记忆叙事用于减少愤怒和悲伤对经历的反应的机制；3)展示记忆叙事在儿童中期和青春期早期何时可以首先用于下调愤怒和悲伤；以及4)当儿童和青少年在成人的帮助下构建叙事时，他们是否能够有效地使用记忆叙事来减少愤怒和悲伤。这项拟议的研究考察了在叙事构建过程中以及在随后的情绪事件中再次暴露时的愤怒和悲伤，以测试记忆叙事是否有助于以持久的方式下调愤怒和悲伤。四项研究采用了实验和横断面设计来回答这些问题。第一项研究将成年人的记忆叙事结构与其他有据可查的情绪调节策略进行了比较：重新评估和分散注意力。第二项研究对比了不同类型的记忆叙事激发，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事有效控制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是否能够在较早的年龄有效地使用叙事来下调情绪，因为他们得到了成人的帮助来构建叙事。所有研究都通过自我报告和生理指标(呼吸、窦性心律不齐和皮肤电导水平)来评估情绪反应和调节。这些研究结果将为在正常样本中使用记忆叙事结构来服务于情绪调节提供指导，通过阐明记忆叙事结构调节情绪的机制，并勾勒出在发展过程中，记忆叙事结构在有和没有专家成人支架的情况下服务于情绪调节的情况。这些发现还提供了记忆叙事结构与已知的情绪调节策略(如重新评估和分心)的比较。 与公共健康相关：拟议的项目将研究关于愤怒和悲伤经历的记忆叙事是否、何时以及如何有助于减少对这些事件的愤怒和悲伤。有效的情绪调节是心理健康的基础；了解人们参与情绪有效调节的方式对于开发干预措施以改善个体的情绪调节非常重要。记忆叙事代表了一种减少负面情绪的生态有效策略，这项拟议的项目将展示它们的实用性，并提供有关儿童和青少年能够使用记忆叙事的年龄的信息，以及叙事的哪些特征对调节情绪至关重要。

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.