Differences of the Use of Emotion Regulation Strategies and Well-being: A Comparison of Two Age Groups

• Main Authors: Yi-Chieh Pan, 潘怡潔
• Other Authors: 吳英璋
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/k4c494

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 心理學研究所 === 102 === OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate how younger people and elder people regulate their emotion in daily life and how such regulation is related to their emotion experience and quality of life. It is hypothesized that the younger and elder adults use emotion strategies differently, and lead to different consequences. METHOD: We translated Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire（CAQ-C）into Chinese version, and reedited the items with the feedback given from 15 undergraduate students who have done the first version of Chinese CAQ. The second version is used in formal study. Chinese version of Emotion Regulation Questionnaire（ERQ-C）, CAQ-C , Positive and Negative Affect Schedule（PANAS）, and Brief version of World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument（WHOQOL-BREF）were given to 44 undergraduate and graduate students and 29 elders who are all over 65. RESULTS: The findings include: (1) The elders used cognitive avoidance strategies significantly more than the youngers. (2) The elders reported significantly less negative emotion experience than the youngers. (3) The young group: expression suppression is positively correlated with both the total score of cognitive avoidance and avoidance of threatening stimuli. The elder group: most of emotion regulation strategies are positively correlated with each other, except cognitive reappraisal and avoidance of threatening stimuli. (4) The younger group: thought substitution could predict increase in negative emotion experience and predict decrease in social quality of life. The elder group: thought substitution could predict increase in social quality of life. Avoidance of threatening stimuli could predict decrease in psychological and social quality of life. CONCLUSION: In present study, we found that the younger and elder group used emotion strategies differently, and they had different emotion experience. Cognitive avoidance strategies led to different consequences between the younger group and the elder group. DISCUSSION: Based on the above findings, the present study tried to discuss in the relationship between variables, culture differences, and individual interpretation of the evoked affective sources. Possible applications, limitations and future research were also addressed.