Although the utility of verbal person-centeredness (VPC) as a feature of social support messages has been demonstrated in numerous studies, questions remain about the scope and theoretical mechanisms that explain VPC effects. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate whether the salutary effects of VPC extend to generic VPC messages and to explore the role of validation as a theoretical mechanism. Participants discussed a personal problem with a fictional computer program named “ListenerBot” that provided standardized responses containing high or low levels of VPC. Participants who received high VPC feedback from ListenerBot experienced a greater reduction in emotional distress than participants who received low VPC feedback. Path models consistently showed that high VPC feedback validated participants’ feelings, which led them to reappraise their situation and ultimately reduced their emotional distress. VPC, however, did not impact participants’ discussion of their thoughts and emotions.

中文翻译：

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评估以人为本的社会支持的范围和理论机制：以计算机辅助程序为例

尽管言语以人为中心（VPC）作为社会支持信息的功能已经在众多研究中得到了证明，但仍存在关于解释VPC效果的范围和理论机制的问题。进行了两个实验，以评估VPC的有益效果是否扩展到通用VPC消息，并探讨验证作为一种理论机制的作用。参与者使用名为“ ListenerBot”的虚拟计算机程序讨论了一个个人问题，该程序提供了包含高或低VPC级别的标准化响应。从ListenerBot收到较高VPC反馈的参与者比没有收到VPC较低反馈的参与者在情绪困扰方面的减少更大。路径模型始终显示，高VPC反馈可以验证参与者的感受，这导致他们重新评估自己的处境，并最终减轻了他们的情绪困扰。但是，VPC并没有影响参与者对他们的思想和情感的讨论。