Cognitive and Emotional Mechanisms in Chronic Grief

慢性悲伤的认知和情感机制

• 批准号: 7090897
• 负责人: GEORGE A BONANNO
• 金额: $ 34.99万
• 依托单位: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-06 至 2010-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7090897
• 关键词: attention; behavioral /social science research tag; bereavement; chronic disease /disorder; clinical research; cognition; coping; depression; dyadic interaction; emotional adjustment; face expression; friendships; grief; human middle age (35-64); human subject; interview; love /affection; memory; posttraumatic stress disorder; psychomotor reaction time; psychosocial separation; widowhood; young adult human (21-34)

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project represents the first stage in a larger research agenda to understand chronic grief reactions with an eye toward informing new directions in assessment and clinical intervention. Although most bereaved individuals recover from loss with one year, a substantial proportion (approximately 10-20 percent) suffer from chronic depression and other grief-related symptoms, as well as increased physical illness and health problems and reduced productivity at work. Traditional models of coping with loss have provided little insight into the these difficulties and existing treatments for chronic grief have proved relatively inefficacious. The primary objective of the proposed project is to develop a more precise understanding of the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that characterize chronic symptom elevations among individuals bereaved from the death of a spouse. The project will compare chronically grieved individuals (elevated depression, PTSD, and separation distress from 1.5 to 3 years post-loss) with recovered bereaved individuals and nonbereaved individuals using a set of experimental tasks and interview procedures. The primary aims are to assess predicted deficits in chronically grieved individuals' (1) attachment dynamics and (2) capacity for effective emotion regulation, and (3) to explore the interface between these two sets of mechanisms. Specifically, we predict that chronically grieved individuals will evidence the following: heightened accessibility for the representation of the deceased spouse across contexts, but also an inability to use that representation for mood repair following threat: reduced ability to use positive emotion to modulate negative emotion and reduced ability to flexibly regulation emotional expression; an attentional bias toward open-mouth disgust faces and away from closed-mouth disgust faces (i.e., attentional preoccupation with social-moral rejection); and an exacerbation of their deficits in emotion regulation when they are primed with the representation of the deceased spouse.

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目代表了更大的研究议程的第一阶段，该研究议程旨在了解慢性悲伤反应，着眼于为评估和临床干预提供新的方向。虽然大多数失去亲人的人会在一年内康复，但很大一部分人（约 10-20%）患有慢性抑郁症和其他与悲伤相关的症状，以及身体疾病和健康问题增加以及工作效率下降。传统的应对丧亲之痛的模式对这些困难几乎没有提供深入的了解，而且现有的慢性悲伤治疗方法已被证明相对无效。该项目的主要目标是更准确地理解丧偶者的慢性症状升高的认知和情绪机制。该项目将使用一组实验任务和访谈程序，将长期悲伤的个体（失去亲人后 1.5 至 3 年的抑郁症、创伤后应激障碍和分离困扰）与康复的丧亲者和非丧亲者进行比较。主要目的是评估长期悲伤个体的（1）依恋动态和（2）有效情绪调节能力的预测缺陷，以及（3）探索这两组机制之间的界面。具体来说，我们预测长期悲伤的人将证明以下几点：在不同的环境中对已故配偶的表征的可及性更高，但也无法在威胁后使用该表征来修复情绪：使用积极情绪调节消极情绪的能力降低，并且无法使用这种表征来修复威胁。灵活调节情绪表达的能力下降；对张嘴厌恶面孔的注意力偏向，远离闭嘴厌恶面孔（即，注意力集中于社会道德拒绝）；当他们受到已故配偶的影响时，他们的情绪调节缺陷就会加剧。