Our goal is to study the psychophysiological patterns of expressed emotions in aging women. The research is intended to examine affective behavior across the lifespan, exploring how changes in emotional responses are related to health and effective functioning. The specific experiments focus on emotional imagery, as it is prompted by narrative descriptions of events, and as such imagery processing is determined by real or conjectural memorial experience. The theory driving this research integrates concepts from cognitive psychology and psychophysiology. Emotions are viewed as action sets or behavioral dispositons (including verbal, overt operant, and covert physiological elements). An affective disposition is represented in memory as a network of concepts, defining context and response. Response concepts are linked to an efferent program which is partially activated during imagery. Thus, emotional pattern can be monitored physiologically during image processing. Two major experiments and their sequelae are proposed, to be conducted in a psychophysiology laboratory, with computer controlled presentation of taped emotional stimulus material, and automated measurement of affective ratings, facial expression, and autonomic and somatomotro responses. Emotional and control imagery will be studied in women who range in age from the third to the ninth decades of life. For women in the 45 to 59 cohort, pre-, peri-, and post-menopausal sub-groups will be separately considered, evaluating the specific impact on emotional expression of this major hormonal transition. The first experiment emphasizes fear and anxiety imagery; the second experiment will explore a range of emotions (anger, grief, fear, and pleasure), with stimulus materials tailored to the subjects' experience, and based on a preliminary interview/survey of emotional content over the lifespan. The importance of several moderator variables will be assessed: """"""""matching"""""""" of script material to actual experience, recency of emotional experience, imagery ability, imagery """"""""training"""""""", menstral cycle period, disposition to PMS, trait anxiety and emotionality. The results are expected to contribute importantly to understanding how general aging factors and hormonal change with aging impact on women"""""""" health, productivity, and effective social funcitoning.
| McManis, M H; Bradley, M M; Berg, W K et al. (2001) Emotional reactions in children: verbal, physiological, and behavioral responses to affective pictures. Psychophysiology 38:222-31 |
