Li Ping, Zhu Chuanlin, Leng Yexi, Luo Wenbo
Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China; Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Province, Dalian, China.
School of Educational Science, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2020 Dec;158:56-61. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.09.010. Epub 2020 Oct 17.
Emotion intensity is important for emotional regulation process. The studies in this literature, however, have generally focused on the down-regulation of negative emotions. Few studies have examined the down-regulation of positive emotions. Distraction and expressive suppression belong to disengagement strategies, which direct coping efforts away from emotions. Participants are more likely to select distraction and expressive suppression when motivated to down-regulate their emotions. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the impact of emotional intensity on down-regulating positive emotions via distraction and expressive suppression. The event-related potentials (ERPs) of college students were recorded while they were instructed to down-regulate positive emotions using expressive suppression or distraction versus free viewing when exposed to high- and low-intensity pleasant stimuli. Subsequently, participants were instructed to rate their positive experience using a 9-point scale. Supporting our predictions, behavioral results showed that both strategies could dramatically reduce high-intensity positive experience relative to viewing, and distraction led to a larger reduction of high-intensity positive experience than expressive suppression. Both strategies could not decrease low-intensity positive experience relative to viewing. ERP results showed that distraction successfully attenuated the early (500-700 ms) and late (700-1500 ms) stage of late positive potential (LPP) in high-intensity, and in low-intensity it modulated the early (but not late) LPP relative to viewing. Unexpectedly, expressive suppression effectively attenuated the early and late LPP in high- and low-intensity relative to viewing. The findings suggest that expressive suppression and distraction can effectively down-regulate positive emotions; however, distraction is more susceptible to emotional intensity and time.
情绪强度对情绪调节过程很重要。然而，该文献中的研究通常集中在负面情绪的下调上。很少有研究考察过正面情绪的下调。分心和表达抑制属于脱离策略，即将应对努力从情绪上转移开。当有动机下调自己的情绪时，参与者更有可能选择分心和表达抑制。因此，本研究旨在评估情绪强度对通过分心和表达抑制来下调正面情绪的影响。在大学生接触高强度和低强度愉快刺激时，记录他们的事件相关电位（ERP），同时指导他们使用表达抑制或分心来下调正面情绪，与之对比的是自由观看时的情况。随后，指导参与者用9分制对他们的积极体验进行评分。与我们的预测相符，行为结果表明，相对于观看，这两种策略都能显著降低高强度的积极体验，并且分心比表达抑制导致更高强度的积极体验有更大程度的降低。相对于观看，这两种策略都不能降低低强度的积极体验。ERP结果表明，分心成功地减弱了高强度下晚期正电位（LPP）的早期（500 - 700毫秒）和晚期（700 - 1500毫秒）阶段，而在低强度下，相对于观看，它调节了早期（但不是晚期）的LPP。出乎意料的是，相对于观看，表达抑制在高强度和低强度下都有效地减弱了早期和晚期的LPP。研究结果表明，表达抑制和分心都能有效地下调正面情绪；然而，分心更容易受到情绪强度和时间的影响。
