Social Facilitation of Emotion Regulation in Adolescence
University of California, Los Angeles
Summary
The goal of this project is to test whether regulating emotions with help from a friend is more effective and long-lasting in adolescents than regulating alone, and to characterize age-related differences in the neural mechanisms supporting social versus cognitive emotion regulation. Participants will complete a psychology experiment while undergoing fMRI scanning.
Description
Participants will complete a novel paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether adolescents (N = 50) and adults (N = 50) are more effective at down-regulating negative affect when a friend provides them with reinterpretations of negative stimuli (i.e. social reappraisal), as compared to when they reinterpret stimuli alone (i.e., cognitive reappraisal). Specifically, participants will look at pictures of upsetting events while undergoing fMRI scanning. For some pictures, they will be instructed to just look at the image. For other pictures, they will be told t…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 13–25 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Adolescent participants must be 13-15 year of age * Adult participants must be 20-25 years of age * Proficient in English Exclusion Criteria: * Auditory, visual or cognitive impairment * Any health conditions that are contraindicated for MRI
Interventions
- BehavioralSocial regulation
Participants will regulate emotion with the help of a friend
- BehavioralCognitive regulation
Participants will regulate emotion on their own
Location
- University of California, Los AngelesLos Angeles, California