Development And Application Of The Questionanaire On Self-efficacy In Intentional Forgetting

People experience a variety of things every day.For most of us,happiness is temporary and easy to accept,while how to resolve the negative emotions brought by suffering is a life issue that everyone has to face.How to face and accept the unfair treatment,embarrassing experience,emotional conflicts and even some major life events,is related to individual physical and mental health and social harmony and stability.Our brains have certain protective mechanisms,and selective forgetting is a better way to accept these events.This type of forgetting is called intentional forgetting.Intentional forgetting,the cognitive process where people forget voluntarily and purposefully unwanted memories or experiences,is crucial for memory unpdating and psychosocial functioning.In the past,a large number of studies have explored the mechanism of intentional forgetting and its subjective evaluation methods,but no study has used a special questionnaire to test individuals’perception of the efficacy of intentional forgetting.The current study developed the Questionanaire on Self-efficacy in Intentional Forgetting（QSEIF）designed to assess one’s evaluation of his/her ability and confidence when voluntarily forgetting unwanted memories,as well as explored its relationship with intentional forgetting ability in laboratory setting and variables in general physical and mental health.In study 1,a theoretical model was constructed based on Bandura’s self-efficacy theory,and the initial questionnaire was formed by combining literature retrieval,in-depth interview,text analysis and questionnaire survey.Through a three-stage cross-validation process on 1047 adult participants.Confirmatory factor analysis and reliability and validity test were performed on the questionnaires of 500 subjects.The study revealed and validated a two-factor model of the 10-item QSEIF:the feeling in forgetting ability and a sense of behavioral control（χ~2/df=2.45,SRMR=0.04,RMSEA=0.06,CFI=0.95,TLI=0.94）.The Cronbach’s Alpha ranges from 0.77 to 0.83,and the test-retest reliability from 0.78 to 0.84 during a two-month interval for the overall and subscales.The QSEIF is correlated with difficulty in thought suppression（r=-0.28～-0.42,ps<0.001）and success in thought control（r=0.42～0.56,ps<0.001）.The QSEIF demosntrates satisfactory reliability and validity.In the second study,we explored whether the QSEIF could effectively predict the results of the intentional forgetting experiment under strict control.In experiment 1,the classical paradigm of item directed forgetting was adopted.Negative and neutral emotion words were used as experimental materials.The experimental design was 2（valence:negative,neutral）×2（instruction:remember,forget）×2（group:high intentional forgetting efficacy group,low intentional forgetting efficacy group）,and the dependent variables were the correct rate of word recognition,response time,and the correct rate of free recall.After the experiment,the subjects filled in the QSEIF.According to the score of the questionnaire,among 114 subjects,31 were selected from the group with high and32 from the group with low intentional forgetting efficacy.ANOVA was conducted for the accuracy of 2（high,low）×2（negative,neutral）×2（remember,forget）.The results showed that the three-level interaction between group,valence and instruction was significant,and the high group had a significant directed forgetting effect,while the low group did not.In other words,subjects with high were more likely to forget the information they wanted to actively forget than those with low,indicating that the QSEIF compiled by us can predict and verify the results of directed forgetting experiment.The Experiment 2 was conducted after 2-month intervals,the procedure and subjects used in Experiment 1 were still selected.In the end,86 people take part in the experiment.The result shows the result of experiment 2 parts repeated the Experiment 1,the higher the self-efficacy of intentional forgetting,the better the ability of directed forgetting.The variation trend of intentional forgetting ability and intentional forgetting efficacy and their corresponding relationship were analyzed.It was found that the participants’intentional forgetting efficacy and directed forgetting ability improved over time.Moreover,the correlation between the variables of the two tests was mostly statistically significant（r=0.44～0.92,ps<0.001）.It proves that the self-compiled QSEIF has certain practical value.The third study investigated the relationship between the QSEIF and variables in physical and mental health in daily life.The QSEIF significantly predicted somatic symptoms,depression,anxiety,stress,negative emotion and adverse health status（β=-0.91～-0.10,ps<0.001）..To sum up,the following conclusions can be drawn in this paper:（1）The two-dimensional structure of the QSEIF is reasonable and has good reliability and validity;（2）The QSEIF can verify the results of intentional forgetting experiment;（3）Scores of the QSEIF can predict social psychological variables such as depression,anxiety,stress and physical symptoms.Being advantageous in its ecological validity and convenience,the QSEIF can serve as a useful research tool exploring the mechanisms and functions of memory updating,complimenting the findings in well-controlled laboratory settings.It is also of promising implications for educational and clinical practices.