L1 - Intro to the socioemotional processing in older age

Question 1

Describe the relationship between perception and reality of ageing comparing younger and older people.

Answer 1

18-64 year olds perceive ageing as more negative than what older people actually experience - a disconnect between perception and reality.

Question 2

What do older people say about the social, community, financial, and physical aspects of their lives?

Answer 2

Older people more likely to endorse that they enjoy these aspects and younger people are more likely to not.

Question 3

What is stereotype threat effect?

Answer 3

An ironic effect of underperformance on a stereotype-relevant task due to the anxiety that an individual feels about confirming negative stereotypes. This is due to activating stress and anxiety causing them not to perform as well as they would have if that stereotype wasn’t activated.

Question 4

What did a meta-analysis show about the performance of the stereotype activated group compared to the control group?

Answer 4

Can expect them to perform a half standard deviation worse compared to a control group

Question 5

What did Levy et al 2009,2015 research?

Answer 5

Perceptions matter: the impact of stereotypes

Question 6

Describe Levy et al’s research

Answer 6

Measured hippocampal volume, measured number of cardiovascular events and other possible control factors of participants who were physically healthy and gave them a survey about attitudes to old people.

Question 7

What were the results of Levy et al’s survey?

Answer 7

People who have positive age stereotypes are more likely to be free from cardiovascular events, and less likely to have a decline of hippocampal volume as opposed to those with negative age stereotypes.

Question 8

What is age?

Answer 8

A demographic value that is always changing.

Question 9

Why has the number of older people increased?

Answer 9

Due to better healthcare and people having less babies

Question 10

What are the possible consequences of increased ageing demographic?

Answer 10

Stress on healthcare
Housing
Overpopulation

Question 11

Why should you study ageing?

Answer 11

Development is a lifelong process - a full picture of lifespan development provides a more comprehensive understanding of human psychology and prepares us individually and societally for age-related changes

Question 12

What is human psychology?

Answer 12

It is predominantly focused on the complex interaction of social-emotional, cognitive, and biological factors that drive human behaviour

Question 13

Who was Paul Baltes?

Answer 13

He was at the forefront of the lifespan perspective movement

Question 14

What is ontogenesis?

Answer 14

An individual from birth to full maturity and death - and all the changes that come with process

Question 15

What did Paul baltes define development as?

Answer 15

Change that lasts a lifetime

Question 16

What are the theoretical proposition that characterise the field?

Answer 16

Development as a life-long process
Multidirectionality
Development as gain/loss
Plasticity
Historical embeddedness
Contextualism as paradigm
Multidisciplinary

Question 17

What is the lifespan perspective: Lifelong process?

Answer 17

No age period holds supremacy in regulating the nature of development - all stages of the lifespan, both continuous (cumulative) and discontinuous (innovative) processes are at work during development. Not one aspect of development is most important.

Question 18

What is the lifespan perspective: multidirectionality?

Answer 18

Even within the same domain, diversity or pluralism are evident in the directionality of ontogenetic change.
Even within the same developmental period, some systems of behaviour show increases while others show decreases in functioning.

Question 19

What are the mechanics of intelligence?

Answer 19

The basic architecture of information processing and problem solving. It deals with the basic cognitive operations and cognitive structures associated with such tasks as perceiving and classification

Question 20

What are the pragmatics of intelligence?

Answer 20

The pragmatics of intelligence refers to how we apply knowledge and skills (both general and specific) in real-world situations. It includes:

General knowledge (like crystallized intelligence, which is facts and information we’ve learned).

Specialized knowledge (like expertise in a job or field).

Knowledge of how to perform well in different situations that require intelligent actions.

It’s about using intelligence effectively in practical, everyday scenarios.

Question 21

What is Lifespan perspective: Gains/losses?

Answer 21

There is joint occurrence of gain (growth) and loss (decline)
Does not imply that throughout life gain and loss exist in equal strength

Question 22

What is Lifespan perspective: Plasticity?

Answer 22

intraindividual plasticity refers to the capacity for change within an individual’s psychological development across their life

Question 23

What is baseline performance?

Answer 23

A person’s initial level of performance on a given task - what can you do in a specified task without intervention or special treatment?

Question 24

What is baseline reserve capacity?

Answer 24

The upper range of an individual’s performance potential, when, at a given point in time, all available resources are called on to optimise an individual’s performance - e.g how fast can you run a 5k with special sneakers.

Question 25

What is Developmental reserve capacity?

Answer 25

When conditions have been added that strengthen an individual’s baseline reserve capacity through intervention or development (e.g how fast can you run a 5k training with a personal trainer for many weeks)

Question 26

What is lifespan perspective: Historical contxt

Answer 26

Ontogenetic development varies with historical-cultural contexts. Development is influenced by the sociocultural conditions in a given historical period, and how they evolve over time.

Ie are the older adults we test in our current research going to be the same older adults in 50 years time

Question 27

What is the lifespan perspective: contextualism?

Answer 27

Individual development is affected by a complex interaction between age-graded normative history graded and nonnormative factors

Question 28

What are age-graded influences?

Answer 28

These biological and environmental determinants that have a fairly strong relation with chronological age and are therefore predictable in their temporal sequence (onset and duration), and are for the most part similar in their direction amongst individuals.
EG, biological maturation and age graded socialisation events are examples. Such as puberty, menarche, and menopause. Also sociocultural forces like marriage and retirement.

Question 29

What are history graded influences?

Answer 29

Involve both biological and environmental determinants that are associated with historical time and define the larger evolutionary -
Two types
1) Long term change functions - towards modernity
2) more time specific/period specific - the coronavirus pandemic

Question 30

What are nonnormative influences?

Answer 30

Also include both biological and environmental determinants whose occurrence, patterning and sequencing are not applicable to many individuals, nor clearly tied to a dimension of developmental time.

They do not follow a general and predictable course.
EG the war and conflict in Syria. Winning the lottery.

Question 31

What is lifespan perspective: multidisplinary?

Answer 31

Purist psychologist view is not the complete picture of ageing - anthropology, biology and sociology aer all concerned with human develpoment.

Question 32

What is the lifespan perspective? LO

Answer 32

The lifespan perspective emphasises a fuller view of an individual, from birth to maturity to death, and the change that comes with that process.

Question 33

What are the changes in social networks with age?

Answer 33

Social network sizes tend to decrease with age

Question 34

What is social pruning and when does it happen?

Answer 34

Social pruning is where you start to prioritise a closer network of people - begins from 30s and 40s

Question 35

What do older people show a preference for socially?

Answer 35

For familiar and emotionally close partners

Question 36

What are the effects of positive social networks with age?

Answer 36

Better cognitive functioning - Seeman et al
Reduced signs of dementia - Fratiglioni et al
Better recovery from stroke - Glymour et al
Lower risk of morbidity and mortality - Berkman et al, Burg et al

Question 37

What is the ageing paradox?

Answer 37

Despite declines in physical and cognitive health, older adults often report positive relationships and well being
Older adults experience higher levels of positive emotions nd less intense negative emotions when interacting with friends and family members
Report greater satisfaction and fewer negative interactions with members of their social network

Question 38

Discuss social preferences in relation to time horizons

Answer 38

When time horizons were expanded, older adults shift their typical preference for familiar social partners
Whereas limited time horizons shifted both age groups towards preferring familiar social partners

Question 39

What is Carstenson’s socioemotional selectivity theory?

Answer 39

Focuses on how people prioritize different goals and relationships based on their perception of time, particularly as they age.

As people get older, and time is more limited - they shift their focus from future-oriented goals (like knowledge acquisition or seeking new experiences) to emotionally meaningful ones (like spending time with loved ones or deepening relationships

Question 40

What are the two primary trajectories of social motives operating through life?

Answer 40

1) The emotion trajectory
Motives to achieve emotional satisfaction and meaning
2) The knowledge trajectory
Motives to acquire new information and to achieve in domains that are relevant to successful adaptation in the future

Question 41

Which trajectory do young adults tend to follow?

Answer 41

The knowledge trajectory - they have so much to learn and long futures to prepare for - time is seen as boundless and open ended

Question 42

What are older adults motivated by?

Answer 42

The emotional trajectory - Time is perceived as constrained and they have already accrued considerable knowledge

Question 43

Describe the trend of positive and negative affects

Answer 43

Positive affects tend to increase and negative affect tends to decrease as we grow older.
Experience sampling research also confirms that the frequency of positive relative to negative emotional experiences increases with age

Question 44

Describe Mather and Carstensen’s positivity experiment

Answer 44

The task was for participants to press a left- or right-hand key when a dot appeared on that side of the screen as fast as they can
Importantly, faces briefly appeared just before the dot that were either positive, negative, or neutral
The idea is that if you are biased to look at a specific emotion, then you will be faster to react to the dot, thus showing an attentional bias
Younger adults did not show much of a bias in either direction, but older adults were strongly biased toward positive faces and against negative faces relative to the neutral baseline

Positive affects what people pay attention to. Attentional bias is different in young and old. Greater in older people as they have more concern about emotion;.
Known as positivity bias

Question 45

What were the trends of older people in M&C’s positivity study?

Answer 45

Older adults are faster to attend to positive stimuli and slower to attend to negative stimuli
Older adults tend to remember positive images compared to neutral and negative images

Question 46

Describe Luong and Charles emotional regulation study

Answer 46

Seeing if they would be willing to steal for a dying family member. Confederate trained to say opposite to what participant said. Asked mood at baseline (when they just arrived) and during task, as well as measuring pulse rate.

Question 47

What were the results of Luong and Charles emotional regulation study?

Answer 47

In these high-stress / high-confrontation situations, older adults were less reactive than younger adults in terms of both self-rated negative affect and physical pulse rate

Older adults were less reactive than younger adults – including pulse rate. A sign they can regulate their emotions differently to younger adults

Compared to younger adults, older adults…
Appraised the task and the confederate more positively
Endorsed goals to perform well on the problem-solving task
Less likely to endorse goals to change their partner’s opinions

Consistent with work that shows, compared to younger adults, older adults…
Are less negatively reactive to daily stressors than younger adults (Luong et al., 2023)
Decision avoidant strategies for interpersonal conflict (Blanchard-Fields et al., 2007)
Less willing to take social risks (e.g., admitting different tastes; Rolison et al., 2013)

Question 48

How does socioemotional processing change with age? LO

Answer 48

Older adults tend to report positive relationships with fewer close social partners and are disproportionately oriented toward positive stimuli compared to younger adults. SST explains these shifts according to shifting motivations to prioritise emotional goals due to changes in time horizons

Question 49

What are the two divisions of the lifespan perspective? R

Answer 49

The early phase - childhood and adolescence
The later phase - young adulthood, middle age, and old age

Question 50

What does the lifespan perspective do? R

Answer 50

Helps place adult development and ageing into the context of the whole human experience, and emphasises that human development takes a lifetime to complete. No one part of life is anymore important than the other

Question 51

What are the four interactive forces of development?

Answer 51

1) biological forces - include all genetic and health related factors that affect development ie menopause

2) Psychological forces - all internal perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and personality factors that affect development

3) Sociocultural forces - interpersonal, societal, cultural and ethnic factors that affect development.

4) Life cycle forces - differences in how the same event or combination of biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces affect people at different points in time

Question 52

What is primary ageing?

Answer 52

A normal disease-free development during adulthood.

Question 53

What is secondary ageing?

Answer 53

Developmental changes that are related to disease, lifestyle, and other environmentally induced changes that are not inevitable e.g pollution

Question 54

What is tertiary ageing?

Answer 54

The rapid losses that occur shortly before death.