emotion and aging

Question 1

Why might you expect that (emotionally) the elderly should fare poorly, and perhaps even be like teenagers?

Answer 1

-Health challenges, a variety of loss, and physical decline
-As you age, the prefrontal processes that help you regulate behavior, attention, and memory deteriorate (similarly to how they are underdeveloped in teenage years)

Question 2

What does the extant research evidence say about aging and emotionality?

Answer 2

-Even with the hardships that come with old age, older adults are generally satisfied and report high levels of emotional well-being and decreases in negative affect as they age

Study findings:
-By their late 60s, individuals began to show (and maintain) a decline in their negative emotions ; the intensity of experienced emotions did not vary based on age
-Adults aged 50-70 showed an increase in positive emotions and decrease in negative emotions compared to younger individuals

Question 3

Describe what we know about changes in happiness, anger, sadness, and regret as people age.

Answer 3

Happiness: holds an adaptive survival purpose as it keeps you physically healthy; adults older than 85 reported the same levels of happiness as middle-age and older adults

Sadness: Studies using self-reports found an almost flat profile across all age groups, when asked about frequency of experiencing sadness

Regret: Older adults are LESS likely than younger adults to report regret
Older adults use more cognitive effort disengage from regret (Decision avoidance and cognitive disengagement)

Anger: holds an unadaptive survival purpose as it makes you physically ill; Self-reported anger increases during young adulthood, and steadily decreases through old age
In the US and Japan, individuals reported more stable, positive relationships in old age and fewer negative relational interactions

Question 4

Explain socioemotional selectivity theory

Answer 4

-Older adults are able to recall more positive than negative images

-They are more likely to give attention to, and remember, positive information over negative information

Question 5

Describe the relationship between age and depression

Answer 5

-Rates of depression in older adults is lower than in younger adults

-When older adults do have depression, the effects are often worse, including medical side effects and cognitive dysfunction
They typically present with physical symptoms

Question 6

Describe the relationship between age and anxiety.

Answer 6

-2x as prevalent in older adults than depression

-“Postfall Syndrome”: poor balance and reduced activity levels make individuals more susceptible to falling, which can have severe health and social consequences

-Cited as the most common anxiety by older individuals