Relações entre Flexibilidade Psicológica, Motivação e Linguagem: uma perspectiva neuropsicológica

Abstract

Psychological flexibility, the disposition to experience thoughts and emotions in the present while orienting life according to values, is intrinsically modulated by processes such as motivation and language and their neurophysiological correlates. This thesis investigated the relationships between neurophysiological and linguistic biomarkers and psychological flexibility through three distinct studies. The first was a systematic review that explored the association between Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and neuroimaging techniques, identifying 15 articles that demonstrated functional changes in brain areas related to emotional regulation, pain perception, and psychological flexibility following ACT interventions. The empirical studies, conducted with 60 psychology students, analyzed the relationship between psychological constructs and vocal and linguistic parameters. In the second study, participants completed the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II), the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ- 12), the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ), the Penn State Worry Questionnaire – 11 (PSWQ-11), the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ), and the Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ), with their voices analyzed using Praat software. A positive correlation was observed between the importance factor of the VLQ and Fundamental Frequency (F0) (ρ = 0.32; p < 0.05), and negative correlations between the importance factor of the VLQ and jitter (ρ = -0.33; p < 0.05). Additionally, significant differences were found in jitter and shimmer between the two questions about values. In the third study, utilizing the DASS-21, AAQ-II, CFQ, and GHQ-12 questionnaires and structural speech analysis via SpeechGraphs software, anxiety (DASS-21) negatively correlated with speech connectivity (N: ρ = -0.282; p = 0.029; LCC: ρ = -0.282; p = 0.029; LSC: ρ = -0.301; p = 0.019) when describing values. Depression (DASS-21) negatively correlated with repetition (L2: ρ = -0.255; p = 0.04). For experiential avoidance (AAQ-II), positive correlations were observed with connectivity (N: ρ = 0.263; p = 0.042; LCC: ρ = 0.263; p = 0.042; LSC: ρ = 0.265; p = 0.040) in speech about impediments. The importance factor of the VLQ positively correlated with speech density (ρ = 0.274; p = 0.034). It is concluded that integrating ACT with neuroimaging, vocal analysis, and speech graphs offers a promising path to understanding the neural and emotional substrates of psychological flexibility.