Emotional experience and processing characteristics of long-term plateau immigrant undergraduates / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the subjective experience and processing characteristics of positive and negative emotions in undergraduates who have immigrated to the plateau for a long time.Methods:SPSS 22.0 was used for data analysis.Using independent sample t-test to compare various data from the plateau group(58 undergraduates who had moved to an altitude of 3 658 m for over 2 years after reaching adulthood) with the plain group (58 undergraduates who had never been to the plateau), including the state anxiety inventory(SAI), self-rating depression scale(SDS), positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS), and the affective valency and arousal on the positive, neutral, and negative emotional pictures.And χ 2 test was conducted for the positive detection rates of state anxiety and depression of the two groups.Then, Pearson correlation analysis was performed on SAI, SDS and PANAS scores. Results:The positive detection rates(state-anxiety 67.24%, depression 56.90%) and scores of state anxiety(44.45±8.57) and depression(50.12±10.11) in the plateau group were all higher than those in the plain group(46.55%, 32.76%, (40.19±9.58), (44.64±9.17) respectively, χ 2=5.06, 8.12, t=2.52, 3.06, all P<0.05). In addition, positive affect scores of the plateau group (28.16±5.39) tended to be lower than those of the plain group (30.28±6.51), but the difference was not statistically significant( t=-1.91, P=0.059). SAI, SDS and PANAS scores were moderately correlated each other( r= 0.69, -0.52, 0.67, -0.62, 0.53, all P<0.01). Positive affect was mildly negatively correlated with negative affect( r=-0.27, P<0.01). The correlation between positive emotion and depression( r=-0.62) was greater than that between positive emotion and state anxiety( r=-0.52, t=2.57, P<0.05). The correlation between negative emotion and state anxiety( r=0.67) was greater than that between negative emotion and depression( r=0.53, t=1.71, P<0.05). The valency score of neutral images in the plateau group (3.06±0.20) was higher than that in the plain group ((2.99±0.20), t=2.01, P=0.047). Conclusion:The long-term plateau immigrant undergraduates are prone to state anxiety and depression, with depression being the primary and anxiety secondary, and exhibit a positivity bias to neutral stimulus processing.