The School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 6997801, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, 6997801, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Sci Rep. 2021 Nov 2;11(1):21468. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-00716-6.
The COVID-19 pandemic poses significant emotional challenges that individuals need to select how to regulate. The present study directly examined how during the pandemic, healthy individuals select between regulatory strategies to cope with varying COVID-19-related threats, and whether an adaptive flexible regulatory selection pattern will emerge in this unique threatening global context. Accordingly, this two-study investigation tested how healthy individuals during a strict state issued quarantine, behaviorally select to regulate COVID-19-related threats varying in their intensity. Study 1 created and validated an ecologically relevant set of low and high intensity sentences covering major COVID-19 facets that include experiencing physical symptoms, infection threats, and social and economic consequences. Study 2 examined the influence of the intensity of these COVID-19-related threats, on behavioral regulatory selection choices between disengagement via attentional distraction and engagement via reappraisal. Confirming a flexible regulatory selection conception, healthy individuals showed strong choice preference for engagement reappraisal when regulating low intensity COVID-19-related threats, but showed strong choice preference for disengagement distraction when regulating high intensity COVID-19-related threats. These findings support the importance of regulatory selection flexibility for psychological resilience during a major global crisis.
新冠疫情大流行带来了重大的情绪挑战，个人需要选择如何进行调节。本研究直接考察了在疫情期间，健康个体如何在不同的与新冠病毒相关的威胁之间选择调节策略，以及在这种独特的、具有全球威胁性的背景下，是否会出现适应性的灵活调节选择模式。因此，这项两项研究测试了在严格的州政府发布的隔离期间，健康个体如何通过行为选择来调节不同强度的与新冠病毒相关的威胁。研究 1 创造并验证了一套与生态相关的低强度和高强度句子，涵盖了新冠病毒的主要方面，包括身体症状、感染威胁以及社会和经济后果。研究 2 考察了这些与新冠病毒相关的威胁的强度对行为调节选择的影响，即在注意力分散的脱离和重新评估的投入之间进行调节。证实了灵活的调节选择概念，健康个体在调节低强度与新冠病毒相关的威胁时，表现出强烈的投入重新评估的选择偏好，但在调节高强度与新冠病毒相关的威胁时，表现出强烈的脱离注意力分散的选择偏好。这些发现支持了在重大全球危机期间，调节选择灵活性对心理弹性的重要性。
