关键词: 情绪调节策略选择, 人际情绪调节, 内部情绪调节, 情绪动机, 脑间同步性

Abstract: Interpersonal emotion regulation refers to the process by which individuals help others control their emotions during social interaction. Social situations are complex and changeable, and it has been suggested that it is of great importance to choose between different strategies in different contexts. Based on the theory of emotion motivation, the current study explores the influence of motivational intensity and direction on interpersonal emotion regulation choice through one behavioral experiment. Then, based on the main findings of Experiment 1, the Experiment 2 further explored the neural mechanism underlying the effect. The present study used the Emotion Regulation Choice Task (ERCT) to explore the effect of emotional motivation, including the motivational intensity and direction, on interpersonal emotion regulation choice (Experiment 1), and to explore the neural mechanism underlying the regulator's strategy choice behavior using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning technique (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 used a within-subjects design with 2 (motivational direction: withdrawal-motivated emotion vs. approach-motivated emotion ) × 2 (motivational intensity: high vs. low) × 2 (task type: intrapersonal ERCT vs. interpersonal ERCT) format. A total of 40 participants were required to choose one of emotion regulation strategies including distraction, reappraisal or watch in the Emotion Regulation Choice Task (ERCT). In the final analysis, the data of 33 valid subjects (4 male and 29 female) were included. Based on the main findings of Experiment 1, Experiment 2 focused on the intensity of withdrawal-motivated emotion and used a 2 (intensity of withdrawal-motivated emotion: high vs. low) × 2 (task type: intrapersonal ERCT vs. interpersonal ERCT) format. 44 female friend dyads participated in Experiment 2. In experiment 1, we found that in withdrawal-motivated emotion, the regulatory strategies including cognitive reappraisal and distraction were chosen more often over watch in the intrapersonal ERCT and interpersonal ERCT. However, participants did not show preference for the three strategies under the condition of approach-motivated emotion. Moreover, the results showed that participants’ preference for reappraisal decreased with the increase of motivational intensity when regulating emotion of themselves. During the process of regulating another personal’s emotion, participants tended to choose cognitive reappraisal whereas showed no preference for different strategies in the condition of approach-motivated emotion. In Experiment 2, the behavioral results show that reappraisal was chosen more often over distraction in low-intensity withdrawal-motivated emotion, while no difference between these two strategies in high-intensity withdrawal-motivated emotion. The brain imaging results showed that, in the context of low-intensity withdrawal-motivated emotion, the activation of right prefrontal cortex (PFC) could positively predicted the regulator’s preference for regulatory strategies when regulating target’s emotion. And the higher activation in left temporoparietal junction (TPJ) was associated with less choice of reappraisal, while the significant activation in regulator’s right TPJ could prompt more choice of observation. Besides, the higher brain-to-brain synchrony between regulator and target in orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) was associated with regulator’s lower preference for reappraisal while higher level of interbrain synchrony in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and TPJ could predict more frequently choice of reappraisal. The results of this study provided insights into people’s choice of strategies when regulating others’ emotion in different motivational context and its neural mechanism. Our findings expand the current understanding of the influencing factors of interpersonal emotion regulation strategy choice.

Key words: Emotion regulation choice, intrapersonal emotion regulation, interpersonal emotion regulation, the motivational dimension of affect, neural synchronization