互補回憶觀點之心理適應效果

Abstract

當回憶負向經驗時，人們常使用兩種回憶觀點。第一種稱之為自我涉入觀點，意即個體透過自己的觀點重現事物；另一種稱為自我抽離觀點，這是指個體透過一個觀察者的角度來重新回憶。這兩種方式都是常見的回憶方式，然而，對個體再回憶負向經驗時，到底哪一種回憶方式教具有適應性與實用性？研究者認為，比起交錯的使用兩種觀點，過度地使用單一觀點可能會造成個體之不健康的心理適應。我們假設讓個體採用他們較不常使用的回憶觀點─我們稱為互補觀點─，取代他們習慣使用的觀點，將能提供個體永遠新的反思觀點，且幫助他們有能力去調節負向情緒以及重新建構理解(不只是重述)該回憶。本論文以三個研究來驗證我們的假設。研究一旨在以真實情境驗證假設，我們使用一個14天的日記研究來多次捕捉個體日常生活中跨不同情境時的回憶觀點。研究結果支持了彈性使用兩種觀點能對個體的認知內容有所助益，此外，互補觀點能預測較少的情緒反應與較能重新理解該回憶。研究二目的為使用一個純實驗設計來驗證假設，實驗結果指出觀點的轉換能調節負向情緒。在研究三中，我們採取一個個體差異的取向，並採用配對法來設計本研究。我們先測量個體的習慣觀點，接著我們在後續的兩組實驗情境中配入同等比例的低、中、高習慣觀點者。研究結果支持假設：互補觀點能預測較少的情緒反應與較能重新理解該回憶。整體來說，本研究發現，當回憶負向經驗時，觀點的轉換能幫助個體有能力去調節他們的負向情緒與認知內容。

When responding to past negative experiences, people often alternate between two perspectives. One is called the self-immersing perspective, from which individuals visualize events through their own eyes, and the other is called the self-distancing perspective, through which individuals see themselves in their experience from the perspective of an observer. Both are common techniques in responding to negative experiences, but which one is more adaptive and useful in properly assessing each experience? We argue that relying heavily on only one of these perspectives to view negative experiences may put individuals at greater risk of developing a deteriorated sense of psychological well-being, compared to alternating between both perspectives to view each experience. We hypothesize that moving people away from the self-perspective (i.e., self-immersing or self-distancing) that they typically use to a perspective that they do not adopt often – which we call complementary perspectives – will provide a new lens for reflection and influence people’s ability to regulate their negative emotion and to reconstrue rather than just recount that experience. Three studies explored our hypotheses. In Study 1, we aimed to investigate our hypotheses in real-life settings. We assessed individuals’ perspectives during recollection multiple times across different situations in daily life by employing a 14-day diary study. The results demonstrated that perspective flexibility can benefit individuals’ thought contents, and complementary perspectives predicted less emotional reactivity and less cognitive recounting versus reconstruing. Study 2 examined our hypotheses through an experimental setting, indicating that shifts in perspectives benefited regulating emotion. In Study 3, we used an approach focused on individual differences through which people were assessed of their habitual self-perspectives and then we matched each treatment condition to similar degrees of subjects’ habitual self-perspectives. The results supported our hypotheses, demonstrating that complementary perspectives predicted less emotional reactivity and less cognitive recounting versus reconstruing. Together, these findings demonstrated that shifting the perspectives that people use to respond to their negative experiences influences their ability to regulate their emotion and thought contents.