Abele A
Institut für Psychologie, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.
Z Exp Angew Psychol. 1990;37(2):181-207.
Studies on the influence of affective states on cognitive processes have used different techniques of experimentally inducing the subjects' mood. One of these techniques, the "autobiographical recollection methodology" is analyzed in the present paper. The experimental studies are concerned with two main questions: first, the reliability, stability and potential reactivity of mood effects produced by this method as well as possible mechanisms underlying these effects; second, possible differences in the descriptions of positive versus negative life events are analyzed. In four studies with altogether N = 344 subjects, the participants were asked to remember and vividly write down an important happy or sad event from their lives. These descriptions were content-analyzed and their effects on the subjects' mood were studied. The results show that the autobiographical recollection methodology is in all four studies an effective mood induction technique lasting 15 minutes. After this time, the subjects' mood comes back to its pretest state. If an adequate cover story is used, there are no signs of reactivity effects of this method. With respect to the underlying mechanisms, the data show that the vividness and specificity of the description were positively related to the respective mood effects. Additionally, the description of negative events led to stronger mood effects when they were uncontrollable. All other variables analyzed (for example, number of words written, time needed, degree of analytical reasoning, degree of expressed emotionality) were unrelated to the mood changes. It is concluded that the effect of the autobiographical recollection methodology is dependent mainly on the event valence category and more or less unrelated to quantitative variables of the event description. With respect to the descriptions of positive versus negative life events, the data show that descriptions of sad events were longer, took more time, were more analytical, and contained more causal attributions than descriptions of positive events. These differences are interpreted as demonstrations of a positivity negativity asymmetry in the processing and storage of affective material.
关于情感状态对认知过程影响的研究采用了不同的实验技术来诱发受试者的情绪。本文分析了其中一种技术，即“自传式回忆方法”。这些实验研究涉及两个主要问题：第一，该方法产生的情绪效应的可靠性、稳定性和潜在反应性以及这些效应背后可能的机制；第二，分析积极与消极生活事件描述中可能存在的差异。在四项共有N = 344名受试者的研究中，参与者被要求回忆并生动地写下他们生活中一件重要的快乐或悲伤事件。对这些描述进行了内容分析，并研究了它们对受试者情绪的影响。结果表明，在所有四项研究中，自传式回忆方法都是一种有效的情绪诱发技术，持续15分钟。在这段时间之后，受试者的情绪会回到测试前的状态。如果使用适当的掩饰故事，该方法没有反应效应的迹象。关于潜在机制，数据表明描述的生动性和具体性与各自的情绪效应呈正相关。此外，当负面事件不可控时，对其的描述会导致更强的情绪效应。分析的所有其他变量（例如，所写单词数、所需时间、分析推理程度、表达的情感程度）与情绪变化无关。得出的结论是，自传式回忆方法的效果主要取决于事件效价类别，与事件描述的定量变量或多或少无关。关于积极与消极生活事件的描述，数据表明悲伤事件的描述比积极事件的描述更长、花费时间更多、更具分析性，并且包含更多的因果归因。这些差异被解释为情感材料加工和存储中积极-消极不对称的表现。
