Greater negative affect and mixed emotions during spontaneous reactions to sad films in older than younger adults

Older adults may be better able to regulate emotion responses to negative experiences than younger persons when provided instructions, but age group differences in spontaneous emotion responses are poorly understood. The current study determined age group differences in spontaneous reactivity and recovery in negative and positive affects, as well as the co-occurrence of negative and positive affects, following a laboratory mood induction. Younger (n = 71) and older adults (n = 44) rated negative and positive affects before and several times after a negative mood induction involving sad film clips. ANCOVA and multilevel longitudinal modeling in HLM were utilized to determine age group differences in spontaneous reactivity to and recovery from the mood induction, as well as age group differences in co-occurrence of negative and positive affects. Relative to younger adults, older adults reported greater negative affect reactivity to and recovery from the mood induction. Older adults also reported greater co-occurrence of negative and positive affects in response to the mood induction, as compared to younger adults. Thus, older adults reacted more strongly to sad film clips than younger persons, exhibited efficient recovery, and reported greater co-occurrence of negative and positive affects. A fruitful line of future research might determine whether affect co-occurrence facilitates effective emotion regulation.     

Emotion Regulation and Memory: Differential Associations in Younger and Midlife/Older Adults

Background/Study Context: Older adults may devote more cognitive resources to the processing and regulation of emotion stimuli than younger adults, but no studies have determined associations between episodic memory performance and naturalistic emotion recovery in a mixed-age sample. The current study ascertained if episodic memory scores were associated with emotion recovery in younger and midlife/older adults and if these associations were moderated by age.

Methods: Participants watched a montage of film clips about interpersonal loss. Self-reported negative and positive emotions were assessed prior to the video, immediately after, and again 10 min after the video. Executive functions, processing speed, and episodic memory were assessed.

Results: Participants with better episodic memory recovered more quickly from the mood induction than participants with lower scores. Age moderated the association between joviality recovery and memory. Specifically, there was a significantly stronger, positive association between joviality recovery and memory in midlife/older adults relative to younger adults.

Conclusions: Stronger memory may facilitate emotion recovery, and this may be particularly true for older adults. Older adults with memory impairment may be at risk for emotion dysregulation.     

Phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories for emotional and neutral events in older and younger adults

The authors investigated age-related differences in phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories for positive, negative, and neutral events. Younger and older participants were asked to recall two specific memories of each type and then to rate their memories on several sensorial (e.g., visual, taste) and contextual (e.g., location, time) characteristics. The authors found that emotional (both positive and negative) memories contained more sensorial and contextual details than neutral memories in both age groups, whereas positive and negative memories did not differ on most dimensions. In addition, negative memories were associated with a higher intensity of positive feelings and a reduced complexity of storyline in older as compared to younger adults. These results suggest that the effect of emotion on phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories is similar in younger and older adults, but that older adults tend to reappraise negative events in a more positive light than younger adults.     

The Emotional Stroop as an Emotion Regulation Task

Background/Study Context: The present studies investigate age differences observed when performing the emotional Stroop task considered as an expression of emotion regulation. Previous studies employing this task showed mixed findings regarding age differences, with a lack of evidence for positivity effects. However, moderating factors such as arousal or dispositional (emotion) regulation strategies were mostly not taken into account. Moreover, relations between Stroop effects and emotional reactions were not examined.

Methods: In two studies (Study 1/2: n_young = 26/41; n_old = 19/39), an emotional Stroop task was employed and valence (negative, neutral, positive [Study 2 only]) and arousal of the word stimuli were varied. Additionally, flexible goal adjustment (FGA), positive and negative affect in the last 12 months, and change in momentary affect (Study 2 only) were measured.

Results: Study 1 showed larger emotional Stroop effects (ESE) in older than younger adults with medium arousing negative words. We also found correlations between FGA (positive correlation) as well as negative affect (negative correlation) and the ESE with medium arousing negative words. Study 2 corroborates these findings by exhibiting positive change in momentary affect with larger ESEs for medium arousing negative words in the older age group.

Conclusions: The findings emphasize the importance of including arousal level and dispositional regulation measures (such as FGA) as moderating factors in age differences and within-group differences in emotion regulation. Although we did not find evidence for a positivity effect, processing in the emotional Stroop task was related to positive change in momentary affect and less negative affect in the older age group. Taken together, our experiments demonstrate that the emotional Stroop task is suited as a measure for emotion induction and related emotion regulation mechanisms.     

Age Differences in the Complexity of Emotion Perception

Background/Study Context: The current study examined age differences in the number of emotion components used in the judgment of emotion from facial expressions.

Methods: Fifty-eight younger and 58 older adults were compared on the complexity of perception of emotion from standardized facial expressions that were either clear or ambiguous exemplars of emotion.

Results: Using an intra-individual factor analytic approach, results showed that older adults used more emotion components in perceiving emotion in faces than younger adults. Both age groups reported greater emotional complexity for the clear and prototypical emotional stimuli. Age differences in emotional complexity were more pronounced for the ambiguous expressions compared with the clear expressions.

Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that older adults showed increased elaboration of emotion, particularly when emotion cues were subtle and provide support for greater emotion differentiation in older adulthood.     

Is There a Paradox of Aging: When the Negative Aging Stereotype Meets the Positivity Effect in Older Adults

Background/Study Context: Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) states that the positivity effect is a result of older adults’ emotion regulation and that older adults derive more emotional satisfaction from prioritizing positive information processing. The authors explored whether the positivity effect appeared when the negative aging stereotype was activated in older adults and also whether the effect differed between mixed and unmixed valence conditions.

Methods: Sixty younger (18–23 years of age) and 60 older (60–87 years of age) adults were randomly assigned to a control group and a priming group, in which the negative aging stereotype was activated. All the participants were asked to select 15 words that best described the elderly from a mixed-word list (positive and negative words were mixed together) and from an unmixed-word list (positive and negative words were separated).

Results: Older adults in the control group selected more positive words, whereas among younger adults, selection did not differ by valence in either the mixed- or unmixed-word list conditions. There were no differences between the positive and negative word choices of the younger and older adults in the priming group. We calculated the differences between the numbers of positive and negative words, and the differences in the older adults’ word choices were larger than those among the younger adults; the differences were also larger in the control group than in the priming group.

Conclusion: The positivity effect worked by choosing positive stimuli rather than avoiding negative stimuli. The role of emotion regulation in older adults was limited, and when the positivity effect faced the effect of the negative aging stereotype, the negative stereotype effect was dominant. Future research should explore the changes in the positivity effect in the face of a positive aging stereotype and what roles other factors (e.g., activation level of the stereotype, arousal level of affective words) might play.     

Age differences in the heritability of mean and intraindividual variation of psychological distress

BACKGROUND: An important question in the study of intraindividual variability is whether the same explanatory mechanisms govern between person variation and within person variation. OBJECTIVE: This paper investigates genetic and environmental influences on affect across varying time frames and genetic and environmental influences on within person variation in affect. METHODS: Twin participants aged 25-74 years provided information on their affective experiences over monthly, weekly, and daily recall periods. Questionnaires and daily telephone interviews were used to assess frequency of negative emotions. RESULTS: Monthly, weekly, and daily reports of negative affect all showed modest genetic influence. Monthly and daily measures also demonstrated modest shared environmental influence. Sibling resemblance in within-person variation in affect was accounted for entirely by shared environment. Tests for age differences in magnitude of genetic and environmental effects revealed that genetic influences on monthly reports of affect were greater among older adults, but genetic influences on daily affective experiences were lower among older adults. CONCLUSIONS: Lowered heritability in daily affect among older adults contradicts standard behavior genetic expectations, and is consistent with the proposition that older adults gain skills in emotion regulation.     

Perceived Duration of Emotional Events: Evidence for a Positivity Effect in Older Adults

Background/Study Context: Arousal and negative affect modulate the effect of emotion on the subjective experience of the passage of time. Given that older adults are less aroused by negative emotional stimuli, and report lower levels of negative affect, compared with younger adults, the present study examined whether the effect of emotion on time perception differed in older and younger adults.

Methods: Participants performed a temporal bisection task for emotional (i.e., angry, sad, happy) and neutral facial expressions presented at varying temporal intervals.

Results: Older adults perceived the duration of both positive and threatening events longer than neutral events, whereas younger adults only perceived threatening events longer than neutral events.

Conclusion: The results, which are partially consistent with the positivity effect of aging postulated by the socioemotional selectivity theory, are the first to show how the effect of emotion on perceived duration affects older adults, and support previous research indicating that only threatening events prolong perceived duration in younger adults.     

Emotional expressivity in older and younger adults' descriptions of personal memories

Background/Study Context: According to the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Mather & Carstensen, 2003, Psychological Sciences, 14, 409-415), aging is associated with greater motivation to regulate emotions. The authors propose that the language people use to describe personal memories provides an index of age differences in emotional self-regulation. Methods: In the present article, the authors reanalyzed three previously published studies in which older (aged 60-88) and younger (aged 17-33) participants described emotional and neutral memories from their recent and distant pasts. The authors analyzed the language of the memories using Pennebaker, Booth, and Francis's ( 2007 ) Linguistic Inquiry Word Count program (Austin, TX: LIWC Inc.), which calculates the percentage of positive and negative emotion words. Results: In Studies 1 and 2, older adults used more positive emotion words than did younger adults to describe their autobiographical memories from the recent past, particularly when these were of a neutral valence. In Study 3, older adults used more positive emotion words when describing more recent memories (from the past 5 years) but not when describing distant childhood or adolescent memories. Conclusion: The authors suggest that these age differences in emotional expressivity support SST, and represent an as-yet unreported age difference that may stem from differences in motivation to regulate emotion.     

Associations between received social support and positive and negative affect: evidence for age differences from a daily-diary study

Recent evidence suggests negative associations between received social support and emotional well-being. So far, these studies mainly focused on younger adults. Quantity and quality of social support changes with age; therefore, this study investigated whether there are age differences regarding the association between received social support and positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). Moreover, it was tested whether these age effects might be due to a differential effectiveness of different sources of support for younger and older individuals. Forty-two individuals (21 younger adults, aged 21–40 and 21 older adults, aged 61–73) completed 30-daily diaries on their received social support, PA/NA and the sources of support provision. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Results indicated age-related differential effects: for younger individuals, received social support was negatively associated with indicators of emotional well-being, whereas these associations were positive for older respondents. Regarding NA, these effects held when testing lagged predictions and controlling for previous-day affect. No age differences emerged regarding the associations between different sources of support and indicators of affect. Conceptual implications of these age-differential findings are discussed.     

Effective regulation of the experience and expression of negative affect in old age

We investigated age differences in the experience and expression of emotion in 64 younger and 62 older adults. By manipulating emotion-regulation instructions, we investigated the effects of age on the control of both the inner experience and the outward expression of emotion. We predicted that there would be age improvements in regulating the inner experience of emotion. Indeed, our results indicated that older adults were more effective than young adults in following instructions to reduce the early experience of negative emotion. There were no age differences in following another emotion-regulation strategy involving the suppression of emotional display. In contrast to the well-documented difficulties in cognitive regulation of other studies, these data suggest that the ability to control experience and expression of emotions operates effectively in older adulthood.     

Daily social exchanges and affect in middle and later adulthood: the impact of loneliness and age

Although daily social exchanges are important for well-being, it is unclear how different types of exchanges affect daily well-being, as well as which factors influence the way in which individuals react to their daily social encounters. The present study included a sample of 705 adults aged 31 to 91, and using Multilevel Modeling analyses investigated whether loneliness or age moderate the relationship between daily affect and daily social exchanges with family and friends. Results indicated differences between events involving family and those involving friends. Furthermore, lonelier individuals benefitted more from positive events than less lonely adults but were not more negatively reactive to negative events. Moreover, results suggested that older adults' affect is more independent of both positive and negative social events compared to younger people. Implications are discussed for the importance of daily social exchanges, daily social stress vulnerability, and the influences of loneliness across middle and later adulthood.     

Emotional development across adulthood: differential age-related emotional reactivity and emotion regulation in a negative mood induction procedure

The present study examines the hypothesis that older adults might differentially react to a negative versus neutral mood induction procedure than younger adults. The rationale for this expectation was derived from Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST), which postulates differential salience of emotional information and ability to regulate emotions across adulthood. The present data support a view of differential age-related effects of negative mood inductions with greater and more heterogeneous emotional reactivity among older adults, who showed a substantially greater decrease in self-rated pleasantness, calmness, and wakefulness than younger adults. Moreover, relative to the younger adults, emotion regulation in terms of mood repair was more effective among the older adults. The age-related mood effects are discussed in terms of SST and have practical implications for the study of emotion and cognition across adulthood.     

Emotion in Younger and Older Adults: Retrospective and Prospective Associations with Sleep and Physical Activity

Older adults may have superior emotion regulation skills than younger adults and the authors suggest that as emotion regulation capacities increase with age, emotions may be less swayed by external events or even by internal traits. The current retrospective and prospective study further tested this hypothesis by determining if the emotions of younger adults were more reactive to two behaviors (i.e., physical activity, sleep) than for older adults. Results supported predictions. Specifically, retrospective self-reports and prospective diary data about physical activity and sleep exhibited stronger associations with emotion for younger than older persons. Implications for emotional well-being across the life span are discussed.     

Divided attention in older but not younger adults is impaired by anxiety

It has been hypothesized that the disruptive effects of negative emotional states, such as anxiety and depression, may contribute to poorer performance in older age. Some studies have reported that higher levels of anxiety are associated with poorer cognitive performance in older adults but not younger adults. The author examined if age and anxiety interact with performance by comparing the performance of normal healthy younger and older adults on cognitive and motor tests under conditions of selective and divided attention. Ninety-two older adults (mean age=70.1 years, SD=7.1 years) and 78 younger adults (mean age=18.8 years, SD=1.9 years), matched on education, vocabulary, and self-reported health, performed a word-comparison and pursuit-rotor task under conditions of selective and divided attention. Anxiety was assessed using the Speilberger State-Trait anxiety scale. The hypothesis was supported: higher anxiety was associated with poorer divided attention performance in older, but not younger, adults. Anxiety was not associated with poorer motor performance in older adults. Implications of the results for cognitive-resource theories of aging cognition are discussed.     

Cultural perspectives on aging and well-being: a comparison of Japan and the United States

This study investigated age differences in multiple aspects of psychological well-being among midlife and older adults in Japan (N = 482) and the United States (N = 3,032) to test the hypothesis that older Japanese adults would rate aspects of their well-being (personal growth, purpose in life, positive relations with others) more highly that older U.S. adults. Partial support was found: older adults in Japan showed higher scores on personal growth compared to midlife adults, whereas the opposite age pattern was found in the United States. However, purpose in life showed lower scores for older adults in both cultural contexts. Interpersonal well-being, as hypothesized, was rated significantly higher, relative to the overall well-being, among Japanese compared to U.S. respondents, but only among younger adults. Women in both cultures showed higher interpersonal well-being, but also greater negative affect compared with men. Suggestions for future inquiries to advance understanding of aging and well-being in distinct cultural contexts are detailed.     

Emotional valence impacts lexical activation and inhibition differently in aging: an emotional Hayling task investigation

Background: Aging is characterized by cognitive changes such as a potential inhibition deficit. However, growing evidence shows that positive valence stimuli enhance performances in older adults to a greater degree than in younger adults. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the emotional valence of words on lexical activation and inhibition in aging by using a new Emotional Hayling Task. Methods: Thirty-eight younger adults (mean age = 20.11 years) and 38 older adults (mean age = 66.47 years) performed a computerized Emotional Hayling task. Participants had to choose the correct (initiation part) or incorrect (inhibition part) final words of highly predictable incomplete sentences. Final words had a negative or positive emotional valence and were paired for reaction time comparison with neutral words. Results: Response times were faster in younger adults than in older adults in both the initiation and the inhibition parts. In addition, response times indicated that older adults initiated more slowly negative than neutral words while no differences emerged in inhibition. No differences were obtained between negative and neutral words in younger adults. Response times showed faster initiation and inhibition for positive than for neutral words in both age groups. Conclusion: These data are consistent with previous findings suggesting a disengagement from the processing of negative versus neutral words in older adults when compared with younger adults. A possible explanation is that activation of negative words in the mental lexicon is weaker in older than in younger adults. Conversely, the positive valence of words seems to enhance both activation and inhibition processes in both young and older adults. These findings suggest that positive stimuli can improve performance.     

Khat use and trait anger: effects on affect regulation during an acute stressful challenge

Khat (Catha edulis) is a widely used stimulating drug often consumed in daily routine in Yemen and East African countries. Chewing khat acutely elicits states of euphoria and feelings of well-being which later shift into emotional instability and low mood. Little is known about emotional regulation in habitual khat chewers. In this study, we compared self-reports on trait anger as well as positive and negative affect responses to a mental arithmetic challenge. Participants included 135 men and women from Yemen who chew khat regularly, occasionally or not at all. Participants attended a laboratory session that involved resting periods and performing a math challenge. Analyses of variance and regression show that regular khat chewing is associated with higher trait anger, more pronounced negative responses during stress and less pronounced positive emotional states. These results suggest that regular khat chewing is associated with disturbances in emotion regulation processes.     

Feeling too old? Consequences for subjective well-being. Longitudinal findings from the German Ageing Survey

ObjectivesA lack of longitudinal studies exists where the difference between chronological age and perceived age (feeling older/feeling younger) and its association with subjective well-being (SWB) is examined. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether these differences are associated with SWB.MethodLongitudinal data (year 2002–2017; n = 18,373 observations in the analytical sample) were taken from the nationally representative German Ageing Survey. To capture SWB comprehensively, positive and negative affect as well as life satisfaction was considered. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule was used to assess positive and negative affect. Life satisfaction was quantified using the Satisfaction with Life Scale. The difference between chronological age and perceived age was used to quantify our main independent variable. More specifically, asymmetric effects were used, i.e. we tested whether changes in negative (chronological age was lower than perceived age, “feeling older”) and positive age comparisons (otherwise, “feeling younger”) are associated with changes in SWB differently.ResultsFixed effects regressions showed that feeling younger was associated with a slight increase in life satisfaction (β = .15, p < .001) and positive affect (β = .15, p < .001). Moreover, feeling younger was associated with a slight decrease in negative affect (β=-.07, p < .05). Feeling older was associated with a considerable decrease in life satisfaction (β=-.65, p < .01) and positive affect (β=-.45, p < .01), was well as a considerable increase in negative affect (β = .49, p < .01).ConclusionsFindings highlight the importance of negative age comparisons (feeling older) for SWB. Strategies to shift age perceptions may be beneficial for SWB in older individuals.     

Ethnic variation in the impact of negative affect and emotion inhibition on the health of older adults

The relations between patterns of emotional experience, emotion inhibition, and physical health have been little studied in older adults or ethnically diverse samples. Testing hypotheses derived from work on younger adults, the authors examined the relations between negative affect and emotion inhibition and that of illness (hypertension, respiratory disease, arthritis, and sleep disorder) in a sample (N = 1,118) of community-dwelling older adults from four ethnic groups: U.S.-born African Americans, African Caribbeans, U.S.-born European Americans, and Eastern European immigrants. Participants completed measures of stress, lifestyle risk factors, health, social support, trait negative emotion, and emotion inhibition. As expected, the interaction of ethnicity with emotion inhibition, and, to a lesser extent, negative affect, was significantly related to illness, even when other known risk factors were controlled for. However, the relations among these variables were complex, and the patterns did not hold for all types of illness or operate in the same direction across ethnic groups. Implications for emotion-health relationships in ethnically diverse samples are discussed.