A Study On The Influence Of Anxiety To Emotion Regulation Flexibility In College Students

Emotion Regulation Flexibility(ERF),one of the important research focuses,holds vital significance for individuals.As is known,ERF which centers on the flexible choosing of emotion strategy not only represents one’s ability in flexibly choosing emotion regulation strategy but also manifests the process.Experiments show that individuals with a good ability in flexibly choosing proper strategies excel in applying the chosen strategies and display high level of ERF.However,we have to admit that ERF is not inherently born and is interactively influenced by several factors,among which individuals’ basic emotion(e.g.anxiety)constitutes an important part.How does individuals’ anxiety influence ERF? This research is trying to answer the question from perspectives of emotion regulation strategy and its target by adopting two independent paradigms,aiming at a further understanding of ERF.Beck Anxiety Inventory is used to select the subjects from two universities in Guizhou Province.In experiment I,91 subjects are considered valid(male: 44,female: 47).In experiment II,94 subjects are considered valid(male: 47,female: 47).All subjects have good eyesight and are right-handed,knowing exactly how to use a computer.Never before have they been engaged in similar experiments.The research focuses on the relationship between emotion regulation flexibility and anxiety from the perspectives of strategy and target.The first experiment explores the impact of anxiety on emotion regulation flexibility based on the intensity of emotion regulation flexibility paradigm.The result shows that(i)when SAM(Self-Assessment Manikin)arousal is taken as the dependent variable and the negative emotion of different levels regarded as the variable,the major effect is evident(F(1,88)=12.984,P=0.001 < 0.01,ηp2=0.129);(ii)subjects’ arousal level is higher when asked to look at pictures containing high-intensity negative emotion factors(M High-intensity=3.33,M Low-intensity=3.05)and the interactive effect between emotional intensity and emotion strategy is not evident;(iii)when the RT(reaction time)of responding to SAM is taken as the dependent variable and different emotion regulation strategies regarded as the independent variables,the major effect is evident(F(1,88)=12.981,p=0.001<0.01,ηp2=0.129).The second experiment turns out effectively by adopting the emotion regulation flexibility with/without expectancy,trying to find out the impact of anxiety on emotion regulation flexibility from the perspective of target.The result shows that(i)when subjects’ errors are considered as the dependent variables and cues taken as the variables,the major effect is evident(F(1,91)=45.622,P<0.001,ηp2=0.334)and unexpected cues result in subjects higher errors(M without expectancy=0.332,M with expectancy=0.210),when subjects’ errors are considered as the dependent variables and different levels of anxiety as the variables,the major effect is evident(F(2,91)= 3.489,p<0.05,ηp2=0.071)and(ii)when the subjects’ reaction time on pictures with emotional factors is reckoned as the dependent variable and cues with/without expectancy regarded as the variables,the major effect is evident(F(1,91)=20.182,P<0.001,ηp2=0.182).The above experiments reveal that(i)individual with low-intensity anxiety,when exposed to low-leveled negative stimulation,tend to adopt a cognitive Reappraisal strategy;(ii)individuals with medium or higher level anxiety need clear targets to regulate their emotion with higher level of intolerance of uncertainty.