Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, Box 102, New York, NY 10027, USA.
J Abnorm Psychol. 2011 Aug;120(3):635-43. doi: 10.1037/a0023541.
There is growing evidence that deficits in emotion regulation may be at the heart of maladaptive reactions after bereavement. Expressive flexibility, or the ability to flexibly enhance or suppress emotional expression, appears to be especially important for adjustment in the aftermath of highly aversive events (Bonanno, Papa, Lalande, Westphal, & Coifman, 2004). In this study, we compared expressive flexibility in a sample of bereaved adults who lost their spouse 1.5-3 years earlier and a comparable sample of married adults. Approximately half of the bereaved adults had Complicated Grief (CG) and half were asymptomatic. Using a within-subjects design, we asked all participants to either enhance or suppress their expressions of emotion or to behave normally while viewing evocative pictures at a computer screen. Observer ratings of expressiveness made blind to condition showed no group differences in overall emotion. However, bereaved adults suffering from CG exhibited deficits in expressive flexibility. Specifically, the CG group was less able to enhance and less able to suppress emotional expression relative to asymptomatic bereaved and married adults.
越来越多的证据表明，情绪调节缺陷可能是丧亲后适应不良反应的核心。表达灵活性，即灵活增强或抑制情绪表达的能力，对于高度厌恶事件（Bonanno、Papa、Lalande、Westphal 和 Coifman，2004）发生后的调整似乎尤为重要。在这项研究中，我们比较了在丧亲 1.5-3 年的成年人样本和相当的已婚成年人样本中的表达灵活性。大约一半的丧亲成年人患有复杂性哀伤（CG），另一半没有症状。使用被试内设计，我们要求所有参与者在电脑屏幕上观看唤起情绪的图片时，要么增强，要么抑制自己的情绪表达，要么正常表现。对表达性的观察者评分在不考虑条件的情况下没有显示出组间在整体情绪上的差异。然而，患有 CG 的丧亲成年人表现出表达灵活性的缺陷。具体来说，CG 组在增强和抑制情绪表达方面的能力均低于无症状丧亲和已婚成年人。
