情緒調節策略與低落情緒對認知抑制作業之影響

Abstract

研究背景與目的：近年來，學者將憂鬱個體的反芻視為情緒調節策略，並由抑制功能缺損的角度加以探討。然而，反芻也可進一步被區分為分析評價式與經驗感受式兩種類型；相較於前者，後者為更具有適應價值的情緒調節策略。因此，本研究以實驗設計之方式，在低落情緒促發下，探討高、低憂鬱程度個體在以不同情緒調節策略（分析評價式與經驗感受式）修復負向情緒後，在其認知抑制作業表現上是否具有差異。 研究方法：本研究先對93位受試者實施低落情緒促發作業後，將受試者隨機分派至分析評價式組或經驗感受式組，最後進行負向促發作業。進入正式資料分析的受試者為在貝克憂鬱量表上之總分大於/等於14分與小於/等於5分者，總共46人。資料分析方式分為兩個層面：其一為以第一次情緒評量分數為共變項，第三次整體正、負向情緒分數為依變項，進行2（憂鬱組別：高、低） × 2 （情緒調節策略：分析評價式、經驗感受式） × 2 （情緒修復：前、後）之重複量數共變數分析；其二為以情緒性負向促發作業中之「負向促發效果」為依變項，進行2（憂鬱組別：高、低） × 2（情緒調節策略：分析評價式、經驗感受式） × 2 （負向促發作業的字詞價性：正、負）之三因子混合變異數分析。 結果與討論：在情緒修復歷程方面，無論受試者原先的憂鬱程度以及使用何種情緒調節策略，正向情緒皆顯著提升，負向情緒皆顯著減少。此外，在低落情緒促發後，高憂鬱組之受試者在使用經驗感受式作為調節情緒策略後，在負向促發作業上對正、負性詞之負向促發效果皆無顯著差異。另一方面，高憂鬱組在處理正向訊息時，使用的情緒調節策略若為分析評價式時，對正性詞的負向促發效果顯著高於使用經驗感受式之受試者。從本研究結果可知，在低落情緒促發後，高憂鬱組的受試者在使用分析評價式做為情緒調節時，個體更加去抑制正向訊息，此與過去文獻認為憂鬱反芻會阻礙個體提取正向記憶能力的研究結果相符。 研究貢獻：本研究結果支持過去研究中認為在探討個體處理正、負向訊息的差異時，需同時考量個體的憂鬱程度與使用的情緒調節策略。另外，本研究雖未發現不同情緒調節策略對情緒修復之差異，但是本研究進一步發現，對憂鬱個體而言，即令其在情緒處理中主觀認為低落情緒已經修復，但在其認知層面上仍持續抑制正向訊息。據此，本研究對臨床病理與臨床研究應用、以及未來研究方向提出一些可能的建議。

Both impaired emotion regulation and difficulties inhibiting negative material have been found to be associated with depression (Joormann & Goltib, 2010). Therefore, the aim of the current research was to investigate how the interplay of emotion regulation strategy and dysphoric mood would influence individual’s performance on the affective negative priming task under negative mood induction. Ninety-three subjects were induced negative mood by mood induction task, and then they were randomly assigned to one of the two emotion regulation conditions (analytic/experiential rumination group). Subsequently, all the subjects undertook the affective negative priming task. Forty-six participants qualified for formal data analysis were those whose total score of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) ≧ 14 (to be dysphoric group) and BDI ≦ 5 (to be nondysphoric group).The data analysis was divided into two parts. Firstly, a 2 (dysphoric/nondysphoric group) × 2 (analytic/experiential rumination) × 2 (emotion regulation: before/after) three way ANCOVA was conducted with pre-test scores as covariate and with positive/negative mood scores at time point 3 as the dependent measures. In addition, with negative priming effect as a dependent measure, a 2 (dysphoric/nondysphoric group) × 2 (analytic/experiential rumination) × 2 (valence of words: positive/negative) mixed design was performed. The results showed that a significant effect on mood recovery was found, regardless of the participants’ dysphoric mood or the emotion regulation strategy they used. Furthermore, there was no significant difference for the high dysphoric experiential rumination group in processing positive vs. negative material under negative mood induction. In addition, compared to the high dysphoric experiential rumination group, when processing positive material, the high dysphoric analytic rumination group revealed a significant negative priming effect. The above results indicated that using analytic rumination as emotion regulation strategy could make it difficult for the high dysphorics to retrieve positive memories, which were consistent with prior research. Taken together, these findings suggested that both emotion regulation strategy and dysphoric mood should be taken into account when investigating the differences regarding how individuals dealing with positive vs. negative material. Furthermore, our research revealed that even the high dysphorics considered that they already recovered from the depressive mood, they still inhibited positive material during their cognitive processing. The implications of the present findings and future research possibilities are discussed.