A Study On Vertical Space Metaphor Of Emotional Concept In Depressed Vulnerability Adolescents

Previous studies have confirmed the interaction between the concept of emotion and vertical spatial orientation.Individuals have metaphorical spatial schema of "positive = up,negative = down".Negative life events are of great significance to depressed individuals,and the concept of emotion also has its special meaning.There are few studies at home and abroad on the vertical spatial metaphor of the concept of depression.In the context of Chinese culture,this study examined the vertical spatial metaphors of emotional concepts and how negative life events were transformed into negative cognitive schemata of individuals with depression susceptibility in middle adolescence(14-17 years old)and late adolescence(18-20 years old).In Study 1,a total of 2100 students from a senior high school and a vocational college in Lanzhou were tested with Beck Depression Scale,cognitive style questionnaire,Core Self-evaluation Scale and self-efficacy scale,and effective individuals with depression susceptibility were selected.There were two behavioral experiments.In Experiment 1,we explored whether the middle-aged(14-17 years old)and late-aged(18-20 years old)depressive individuals were guided and processed by commendatory and derogatory words without artificially linking valence words and location information.The results show that there is no significant difference between the reaction time when positive words appear at the top and the reaction time when positive words appear at the bottom in mid adolescence(14-17 years old)and late adolescence(18-20 years old);there is no significant difference between the reaction time when negative words appear at the top and the reaction time when negative words appear at the bottom.In Experiment 2,based on the results of Experiment 1,Stroop paradigm was used to explore the relationship between emotional concept and vertical spatial orientation of depression prone individuals in the middle and late adolescence(14-17 years old and 18-20 years old).The results show that there is no significant difference between the reaction time of positive words appearing at the top and negative words appearing at the bottom in middle adolescence(14-17 years old),while the reaction time of negative words appearing at the bottom is significantly greater than that of negative words appearing at the top;the result trend of late adolescence(18-20 years old)is roughly the same as that of middle adolescence(14-17 years old),showing the same trend The edge is obvious.In the second study,qualitative research method was used to explore how the negative life events of adolescents with depression were transformed into the negative cognitive schema in ther daily life experience.The results show that negative life events accompanied by emotional state and physical action will affect the individual’s daily life experience in the future.Through the above quantitative research and qualitative research,the main conclusions are as follows:(1)In the vertical schema,adolescents are not susceptible to depression.(2)Positive and negative stimuli are of great significance to depressed individuals.(3)In adolescents with depression susceptibility,the perception of vertical spatial orientation affects the discrimination of positive and negative stimuli.Specifically,the perception of downward orientation affects the individual’s discrimination of negative stimuli.(4)The representation of emotional concept is different in different age groups.(5)From the perspective of perceptual simulation,we can better understand the emotional concept representation and embodied schema of cognitive vulnerable individuals with depression.Research shows that in adolescents with depression susceptibility,the perception of vertical spatial orientation can affect the discrimination of positive and negative stimuli,especially the perception of downward orientation.Spatial activation is experience specific.