Emotion Regulation Evoked By Negative Images:Distraction And Cognitive Reappraisal

The research of Emotion regulation has a long history, and development into an independent field of scientific research at the end of the twentieth century. Emotion regulation is an important part of the individual socialization and key psychological mechanisms to adapt to society, and in recent years,it has gained a lot of attention from the emotional research field. The neural mechanisms of emotion regulation study mainly based on Gross’s emotion regulation process model. In the study, we choose distraction and cognitive reappraisal strategies, which are very common in our everyday life. According to Moser’s experimental paradigm, and use event-related potentials technology. Under the same experimental environment, after the direct comparison of these two strategies, try to discover the differences between electrophysiological characteristics and the gender differences of the regulation strategies. So it can to deepen the emotional regulation strategies.The paper contains two studies:(1) To investigate the time process characteristics and differences of distraction and cognitive reappraisal. To explore the time process characteristics of the two strategies, including the recorded N2, P3, and LPP electroencephalogram. Then, comparing the differences of the two strategies within the three kinds of electroencephalogram.(2) The gender differences of distraction and cognitive reappraisal. A comparative analysis of he gender differences within and between the two strategies, to realize the brainwave differences in differences time stages and the differences between the left and right cerebral cortex.From the ERP experimental data, we get the following conclusions:(1) Compared with the watching group, in the condition of distraction, the LPP amplitude decreases at300ms, to indicate that distraction restricted the processing of evaluation on the emotional meaning. While, in the condition of cognitive reappraisal, the LPP amplitude decreases at450ms, which indicates that the processing of evaluation on the emotional meaning occurred. Therefore, compared with the cognitive reappraisal emotional strategy, distraction arises in the earlier stages of emotion generation process. (2) In the different time windows of distraction, the gender differences are not significant. The data showed a significant difference between Pz and P3, P4, at the same time, there was no significant difference between the P3and P4; In the all time windows of cognitive reappraisal strategy, the gender differences are significant, and the LPP amplitude of male is smaller than the female. Concluded that the male bias in the use of cognitive reappraisal strategy, while female tend to use the distraction.(3) In the condition of cognitive reappraisal, the LPP amplitude of male is always smaller than the female. We conclude that cognitive reappraisal strategy has significant gender differences, and the LPP amplitude of male is smaller than the female.