Gu Xuan, Tse Chi-Shing, Tsang Ho-Chung, Zeng Taoran
Department of Social Work, School of Philosophy and Social Development, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jun 5;15(1):19778. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-01946-8.
Understanding how people process and reflect upon past negative experiences is critical for promoting eudaimonic well-being. This study examined how psychological distance and construal level during autobiographical memory retrieval jointly influence post-recall affect and eudaimonic well-being. Participants retrieved negative autobiographical events initially from a 1st-person perspective and subsequently, on a separate day, from a 3rd-person perspective, thereby increasing psychological distance. During each retrieval, participants elaborated either at a high construal level (reflecting on the event's broader meaning and life implications) or a low construal level (focusing on contextual details, such as location). After each retrieval, participants evaluated mnemonic characteristics of the recalled events, post-recall affective responses, and current eudaimonic well-being. Baseline measures included depression symptoms, dispositional construal level, and initial eudaimonic well-being. Results showed that high-level construal, compared to low-level construal, enhanced subjective vitality and search for meaning in life, while reduced negative post-recall affect. Shifting from a 1st-person to a 3rd-person perspective decreased emotional intensity and further increased meaning-seeking. Notably, beneficial effects of high construal level on eudaimonic well-being were more pronounced when recalling from the 1st-person (vs. 3rd-person) perspective. These findings offer new insights into Construal Level Theory and offer practical implications for expressive writing and well-being intervention.
了解人们如何处理和反思过去的负面经历对于促进幸福安康至关重要。本研究考察了自传体记忆提取过程中的心理距离和解释水平如何共同影响回忆后的情绪以及幸福安康。参与者最初从第一人称视角提取负面自传体事件，随后在另一天从第三人称视角提取，从而增加心理距离。在每次提取过程中，参与者要么从高解释水平（思考事件的更广泛意义和生活影响）进行阐述，要么从低解释水平（关注情境细节，如地点）进行阐述。每次提取后，参与者评估所回忆事件的记忆特征、回忆后的情感反应以及当前的幸福安康状况。基线测量包括抑郁症状、倾向性解释水平和初始幸福安康状况。结果表明，与低解释水平相比，高解释水平增强了主观活力和对生活意义的探寻，同时减少了回忆后的负面情绪。从第一人称视角转换到第三人称视角降低了情绪强度，并进一步增加了对意义的寻求。值得注意的是，当从第一人称（相对于第三人称）视角回忆时，高解释水平对幸福安康的有益影响更为显著。这些发现为解释水平理论提供了新的见解，并为表达性写作和幸福干预提供了实际意义。
