Lecture 7: Chapter 8 – Emotional Development

Question 1

What is the emotional expression readily apparent from birth?

Answer 1

Crying

Question 2

What are the 2 reasons why newborns cry?

Answer 2

1. Express distress – undifferentiated protest against anything unpleasant or threatening
   
   • E.g. Being hungry, sleepy, gassy, uncomfortable
2. Quickly allows an infant to get others’ attention and care
   
   • Was this an evolved trait to communicate?

Question 3

Why can’t contagious crying be attributed to infants sympathizing with other babies?

Answer 3

They are too young to understand other newborns’ existence

Question 4

Contagious crying is not instantaneous, but after listening to another infant crying for 2-3 minutes T or F?

Answer 4

T

Question 5

5. Over the few months following birth, infants gradually increase social reactions with others, but ______ ______ decreases

Answer 5

Contagious crying

Question 6

What happens in infants following 8 months?

Answer 6

Only after 8 months do infants show signs of understanding another infant is in distress, and even then the reaction looks more like interest than concern

Question 7

7. In infants 18+ months old reaction to another child’s distress are greater among children who ______________________?

Answer 7

Have an older sibling

Infants learn to pay more attention to emotional displays by interacting with their older siblings

Question 8

Crying (in infancy) in response to vaccination injection is almost _________, accompanied by ____ ____ eyes

Answer 8

Crying in response to vaccination injection is almost instantaneous, accompanied by tightly closed eyes

Question 9

Crying (in infancy) in response to emotional events occurs ____________, with eyes _____

Answer 9

Crying in response to emotional events occurs after a delay and builds up, with eyes open/ partly open

Question 10

Crying (in infancy) in response to fear (e.g. sudden noise) is about the same as ____ (e.g. being immobile) → can’t differentiate yet

Answer 10

Anger

Question 11

Crying in response to fear (e.g. sudden noise) is about the same as anger (e.g. being immobile), what theory is this against?

Answer 11

Basic emotions theory because it states that physiological responses you exhibit should be somewhat differentiated enough that you can tell one situation from another & crying at infancy is not similar to crying as an adult because the same level of crying can be used for different emotions

Question 12

Crying in response to fear (e.g. sudden noise) is about the same as anger (e.g. being immobile), what theory is this akin to ?

Answer 12

Component process model where you can have similar aspects across emotions but their magnitudes change slightly

Question 13

Describe the emotional reactions of smiling and laughing in infancy

Answer 13

• Newborn will sometimes curl up corners of mouth when relaxed
• At 3 weeks, eyelids begin to crinkle, may open mouth into full grin
  
  • Occur occasionally throughout the day, but mainly in
    REM sleep, could be interpreted as from happy
    dreams, or just random

Question 14

At 2 months, infants begin ____ ____ mainly with ____ at first

Answer 14

Social smiling: smiling in response to seeing others smile
- At first begins mainly with parents/other caregivers
- Occurs much more frequently in some mother-infant pairs than in others

Question 15

Social smiling corresponds with the development of _____ ____ in infants

Answer 15

Visual acuity

• In first few weeks infants only have blurry vision, tend to look at eyes rather than mouth
• At 6-8 weeks will start to look at people’s features more closely (ex: look at the mouth)

Question 16

Why does smiling seem like more of an innate response?

Answer 16

Smiling occurs without need for learning, since blind at birth infants smile as much as sighted people do and in the same situations

Question 17

Why is social smiling not necessary (but could help) to strengthen parent-child relationship?

Answer 17

• Blind children can establish an attachment just as strong
  
  • Parents of blind children play physically with their
    babies (tickling, bouncing etc.) more than parents of
    sighted children
  • Babies respond by smiling from both play (tacile
    cues) and sounds

Question 18

Contagious crying (in babies and adults) develops slowly, while contagious laughter occurs ___ or not at all

Answer 18

Contagious crying develops slowly, while contagious laughter occurs quickly or not at all

Question 19

What is an infant’s emotional reaction to danger called?

Answer 19

Moro reflex (infant startle): a sequence in which the infant flings out its arms and spreads its fingers, then contracts quickly into a fetal position with fingers bent

Question 20

What 3 situations does the Moro reflex (infant startle) occur in? How does it aid the infant?

Answer 20

• Occurs when being dropped, hearing a sudden loud noise, or seeing large figure moving quickly toward them
• Helps infant reach out and grab onto whatever it can (e.g. an adult to prevent falling)

Question 21

Moro reflex does not equal fear, why?

Answer 21

• Does not include prototypical facial expression of fear
• Fear requires cognitive appraisal of danger (flinching alone doesn’t count)
  
  • After a moro reflex, infants will cry regardless of
    whatever is happening
    - E.g. if they start to cry at the sound of fireworks,
    they will continue to cry despite the lack of
    danger

Question 22

Fear in infancy seems to be more reactionary. T or F?

Answer 22

T

Question 23

Expressions in newborns such as crying, smiling, startle are responses to ____ _____ _____.

Answer 23

Simple biological states

E.g. Crying because they are hungry or in pain, not because of hurt feelings
E.g. Smiling because they feel comfortable, not because they are happy
E.g. Moro reflex/startle in response to sudden bright lights and loud noises or when dropped, not because of fear

Question 24

Emotions in response to cognitive appraisals of events occur in infancy. T or F?

Answer 24

F

Question 25

One criterion for the theory of basic/discrete emotions is that these emotions should emerge _____ ____ _____. Such implies that things that occur later are only from ______.

Answer 25

• Early in life (i.e. innate)
• Learning (through an interaction w/ your environment, something had to be taught to you through social construction of emotions and cultural influences)

Question 26

To strengthen the case for basic/discrete emotions, researchers have sought to identify facial expressions for distinct emotions in infants through “_______”

Answer 26

“Max formulas”, developed by Oster, Hegley, & Nagel (1992)

• Strong facial expressions coded with FACS, but for babies
• The expressions were thought to convey joy, interest, surprise, disgust, fear, anger, sadness, or generic distress

Question 27

With respect to “Max Formulas”, Oster, Hegley, & Nagel (1992) found that more than 70% of images labelled correctly for ___ and ____, as well as one expression ____

Answer 27

• Found that more than 70% of images labelled correctly for joy and surprise, as well as one expression interest
  • The other image of interest was of a baby < 2
    months old, babies that young show low interest in
    general
  • Could be because interest which is a weaker positive
    emotion is not developed

Question 28

With respect to “Max Formulas”, Oster, Hegley, & Nagel (1992) found that people did slightly above chance for some ____ photos but not others. Moreover, did well at labelling ___ expressions.

Answer 28

• People did slightly above chance for some negative photos but not others
  
  • For most photos, were more likely to label as
    distress or sadness
  • Did well at labelling sad expressions, but that might
    have been default choice in general for any
    discomfort expression

Question 29

Describe Camras and Shutter’s, 2010 evaluation of “Max formulas” findings

Answer 29

• When images were analyzed using “Baby FACS” system, found agreement for joy and surprise expressions but not negative emotions
• Only 3 of the 19 negative expressions were coded the same way using Baby FACS
• Thus, just using the Baby FACS or the Max formulas system may not be enough and may be underestimating the capacity to recognize a certain emotion:
• When adults observe infant’s body movements and vocalizations with facial expressions:
  
  • They do not consistently label any expression as
    fear or anger
  • Only do a little better at identifying sadness

Question 30

Expressions for ___, ____, ____, or ______ in infants often occur in what appears to be inappropriate or irrelevant situations (Camras and Shutter, 2010)

Answer 30

Fear, surprise, anger, or sadness
- E.g. Surprised expressions when excited, or putting object in mouth

Question 31

Describe the methods of Camras et al’s (2007) study that elicited emotions in 11 month old babies

Answer 31

• Restraining their wrists on a table for two minutes (anger)
• Used a gorilla head make growling noises while moving its lips and having its eyes light up (fear)

Question 32

Describe the findings of Camras et al’s (2007) study that elicited emotions in 11 month old babies and what they suggest

Answer 32

• Found that facial expressions of both were not clearly different
• Breathing rate increased more for gorilla head, struggled more when restrained

But overall, not very definitive (atleast at any early age)

Question 33

Wynn and Chiang (1998) wanted to see how babies would respond cognitively to impossible vs. possible situations. Describe their methods

Answer 33

• Showed infants two objects, cover with a screen, retrieve one object from behind screen
  
  • Will then either show one object left (possible) or two
    objects left (impossible) after removing screen

Question 34

Wynn and Chiang (1998) wanted to see how babies would respond cognitively to impossible vs. possible situations describe their findings and what they suggest

Answer 34

• Infants as young as a few months stare longer at impossible situation, but do not show facial expressions of surprise (lifted eyebrows, widened eyes)
• Physically capable of “surprise expression” when looking high above themselves
• Thus, it’s not that its impossible, the physical maturation is technically there, but it’s not eliciting that specific package of emotions for surprise

Question 35

In a follow up to Wynn and Chiang’s (1998) study, Scherer, Zentner and Stern (2004) examined infants’ and toddlers reactions when experimenter’s voice changed to a squeaky, metallic sound using a microphone sound distorter. What did they find?

Answer 35

Even up to ages of 14 months, children never made any vocal or facial expressions resembling adult surprise, but did stare (basic interest into what’s happening but the prototypical expressions haven’t manifested yet)

Question 36

Sternburg and Campos (1990) compared the anger reactions of 1, 4 and 7 month old infants using the arm-restraint procedure. What were their findings for 1 month olds?

Answer 36

• Lowered brows and raised cheeks to show general distress
• Did not show prototypical anger display
  
  • Eyes were closed, tongues stuck out of their mouths
• Likely doesn’t understand why or how they being restrained

Question 37

Sternburg and Campos (1990) compared the anger reactions of 1, 4 and 7 month old infants using the arm-restraint procedure. What were their findings for 4 month olds?

Answer 37

• Showed more characteristic anger expression, narrowing eyes, pulling back lips, frowning, and raising cheeks
• Looked primarily at restrained arm, localizes frustration to the arm restraint, but cannot attribute the event to a person

Question 38

Sternburg and Campos (1990) compared the anger reactions of 1, 4 and 7 month old infants using the arm-restraint procedure. What were their findings for 7 month olds?

Answer 38

• Showed more prototypical anger expression, and looked at experimenter doing the restraining, and at their mothers in the room
  
  • Appears to be blaming the experimenter

Question 39

Porter, Jones, Evans, and Robinson (2009) did variant of Sternburg and Campos’ (1990) procedure where either the experimenter or the mother did the restraining. What did they find?

Answer 39

Infants showed more distress when the mother does the restraint

Question 40

What are the 3 potential reasons as to why infants showed more distress when the mother did the restraint in Porter, Jones, Evans, and Robinson’s (2009) study?

Answer 40

1. Infant may be more accustomed to intrusions by strangers (e.g. doctors, nurses)
2. Infant may feel betrayed by the mother’s mistreatment
3. Infant may feel less inhibited towards expressing anger at the mother, unsure of how the stranger will react

Question 41

What is the first potential hypothesis for how emotions eventually over months and years develop in humans?

Answer 41

1. Newborns possess the full range of emotions, but lack the cognitive and motor capacity to express them

Question 42

What is the second potential hypothesis for how emotions eventually over months and years develop in humans?

Answer 42

2. Newborns distress is a mixture of anger, fear, sadness, disgust etc. and over time distress differentiates into more well defined emotions

Question 43

What theory is the hypothesis (2nd) that newborns distress is a mixture of anger, fear, sadness, disgust etc. and over time distress differentiates into more well defined emotions similar to?

Answer 43

Approach/avoid theory and phylogenetic tree example where we have a specific undifferentiated mass of approach & avoid and then they differentiate out into positive emotions and negative emotions

Question 44

What is the third potential hypothesis for how emotions eventually over months and years develop in humans?

Answer 44

3. Certain emotions are simply absence at birth, and only gains these emotions through brain maturation

Question 45

What are the two ways that emotions develop?

Answer 45

1. Physical Maturation
2. Cognitive Maturation

Question 46

Explain how physical maturation leads to the development of emotions

Answer 46

• Newborns have limited ability to respond to visual stimuli
  
  • Have poor visual acuity, especially in centre of eye
    (best area in adults)
  • Have trouble shifting visual attention
• Motor maturation allows infants to crawl and walk into new situations
  - E.g. Increased chance to getting lost or
  encountering danger
  - E.g. Increased chance of falling after just learning to
  stand and walk
• Motor maturation allows infants to express emotions more easily
  - E.g. Can make more refined gestures, more
  intricate facial expressions

Question 47

Explain how cognitive maturation leads to the development of emotions

Answer 47

• Children develop over time an ability to understand event’s from other people’s perspectives
  
  • Important for the development of self-conscious
    emotions such as pride, shame, and guilt
    - Babies are believed not the have sense of self,
    unable to feel these emotions

Question 48

Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979) asked mothers of 9 and 24 month old children to put a spot of rouge on children’s nose, while pretended to wipe it off. They found that the more cognitively underdeveloped an animal is, the less of an ability they have to understand they are a self in the world. What are their results with respect to infants < 16 months and >18-24 months?

Answer 48

Infants < 16 months reached out to the mirror, as if seeing another child
Infants >18-24 months reached up to nose to wipe off spot, having sense of self

Question 49

Children begin to show ______, ______ and _____ (emotions) around the same time they start recognizing themselves in the mirror

Answer 49

Embarrassment shame and guilt

Question 50

Eventually over years, children will develop a theory of mind: an understanding that other people have minds, with different perspectives, with some people knowing things that you may not, and vice-versa. Such can emerge as early as ____ years or as late as ______ years old

Answer 50

1.5 years or as late as 4.5-6 years old

Question 51

Why are the emotions of embarrassment, shame and guilt referred to as “other-conscious” emotions instead of “self-conscious” emotions?

Answer 51

You can’t react to how people think of you if you don’t know that other people think of you

Question 52

With respect to how emotions develop, how does social interaction play a role? (3)

Answer 52

1. Infants begin looking to trusted caregivers to find out how to feel about novel objects/events late into the first year of life
2. Different cultures have different expectations about the emotions and different rules for displaying them, shaping emotional learning at a young age
3. Also learn from interactions with other children
   
   • E.g. Children who share their toys with others find
     that the other children are willing to share in return

Question 53

With respect to the development of emotional communication: perceiving, sharing, and talking about emotions, people rely on ______ and ______ as a way to communicate emotional feelings with each other

Answer 53

People rely on intersubjectivity (sharing of experience) and social referencing (observing other people’s behaviour as a guide for one’s own reactions) as a way to communicate emotional feelings with each other

Question 54

How does intersubjectivity (sharing of experience) and social referencing (observing other people’s behaviour as a guide for one’s own reactions lead to the development of emotional communication?

Answer 54

Because you are reinforced with your expressions with someone else’s expressions and they tend to be the same thing it reinforces these bundles of emotion (ex: this is what the situation overall should look like for happiness)

Question 55

When do intersubjectivity and social referencing begin?

Answer 55

• Both begin at infancy
  E.g. infant grabbing toy will make a parent show pleasure
  E.g. Infant falling and getting hurt will make a parent show sadness

Question 56

Children and parents tend to synchronize their attention to objects and their emotional responses to them, almost at once in most cases. Describe the two types of intersubjectivity.

Answer 56

1. Primary intersubjectivity: infant just responds to the parent’s emotions
2. Secondary intersubjectivity: infant notice what caused the parent’s reaction and then adjusts their reaction to the object

Question 57

Sorce, Emde, Campos, and Klinnert (1985) wanted to show that intersubjectivity influences emotional experiences and then ultimately influences behaviour. Thus, they performed the visual cliff experiment to show that social referencing occurs at about 9 months. Describe their methods

Answer 57

• Place infant on the “shallow side, while mother is on the other side of the table, beyond the “deep” end
• Mother is instructed to either look frightened or smile towards infant

Question 58

Describe Sorce, Emde, Campos, and Klinnert’s (1985) results

Answer 58

• At 9 months, most infants use mother’s cues to decide whether to cross
  
  • Stays put when mother afraid, will test glass and
    cross if mother is smiling

Question 59

With respect to the development of emotional communication: perceiving, sharing, and talking about emotions, when can children interpret facial expressions of emotion?

Answer 59

By about 3 years old, children can expression emotions, and understand other people’s expressions

Question 60

With respect to the development of emotional communication: perceiving, sharing, and talking about emotions, when can children name emotions from photos?

Answer 60

• Naming emotions from photos increases in accuracy with age, but even 7-year olds make many mistakes
  - More natural settings, young infants also use
  context, gestures, voice tone, and other cues to
  recognize emotions more easily and accurately

Question 61

With respect to the development of emotional communication: perceiving, sharing, and talking about emotions, children learn gradually to recognize emotional expressions, rather than acquiring the skill at once. What order do they learn the basic emotions in?

Answer 61

First happiness, then anger and sadness, then fear and surprise, and then disgust last learnt in both English and French speaking children

Question 62

What is the first explanation for how children learn the meaning of facial expressions?

Answer 62

1. Innate processes allow for automatic understanding of facial expressions (e.g. smile for happy, frown for sad)

Question 63

With respect to the second explanation for how children learn the meaning of facial expressions, what is facial mimicry and when does it occur?

Answer 63

Facial mimicry: copying other people’s facial expressions
- Reported in the first days of life, but become rare for the next several months
- May be closer to an automatic reflex than a motivated behaviour

Question 64

With respect to the development of emotional communication: perceiving, sharing, and talking about emotions, when does emotional language occur and what is it a predictor for?

Answer 64

Emotional Language occurs early in age, and is good predictor of healthy social development

• 2-year-olds use emotion words in play to attribute emotions to dolls and stuffed animals in appropriate situations
• Toddlers talk about what they and others felt in the past and what they expect to feel in the future, not just the present

Question 65

3 year old children who talked more with their families about emotional experiences showed better ability to determine other people’s emotions in Grade 1. However, such results were correlational, not causational. Thus, it could be that both language and social skills depend on _____________?

Answer 65

Overall cognitive maturation

Question 66

With respect to the socialization of emotional expression, cultures are ____ in expectations of children?

Answer 66

Similar
- Survey of 48 countries found that parents in all countries wanted children to be happy, not too fearful, and capable of controlling their anger
- Most people expect and tolerate occasional impulses/aggressive behaviour at 2-3 years old, but later in age expect children to restrain themselves or face ostracization from peers

Question 67

With respect to the socialization of emotional expression, emotional expressions vary by gender but not much at first. Boys express more ___ than girls, girls express more____, _____, ____, and ____

Answer 67

• Boys express more anger than girls, girls express more happiness, sadness, anxiety, and sympathy
  - Differences in displays of happiness increases from
  early childhood to adolescence (Chaplin & Aldao)

Question 68

Liew, Eisenburg & Reiser (2004) found that children vary substantially in their ability to regulate/conceal their emotions. They had preschool children rank-order 5 presents from best to worst, exp promised to give one later. Subsequently, exp gave worst rated gift and looked at reactions. What were their 2 findings?

Answer 68

• Children rated by teachers/others as lacking social skills cried, threw the unwanted present, and demanded a better one
• Children rated by teachers/others as good at controlling their emotions in a variety of situations politely accepted it and hid their disappointment

Question 69

Rosen et al. (2015) suggested in their adopted children study that children vary substantially in their ability to regulate/conceal their emotions because of their parents according to what 3 reasons?

Answer 69

1. Children react to their parents’ display and copy them
2. Parents might be reacting their children’s emotional outbursts
3. Children and parents share similar genetic profiles

Question 70

Miyake et al. (1986) had both Japanese and American mothers yell angrily while their 11 month baby crawled towards a toy. What were their results and what do they suggest?

Answer 70

1. American babies paused but Japanese babies paused for longer
2. Japanese babies more perplexed since yelling from their mother was less common (considered more inappropriate culturally) compared to the American mother
   Suggests that parental emotional displays vary across cultures

Question 71

Children also learn cultural rules when parents reinforce/punish their emotional displays. Conroy, Hess, Azuma, & Kashiwagi (1980) asked American and Japanese mothers of 3-4 year olds how they would respond to various kinds of mischief. What were their findings?

Answer 71

• American mothers would demand child stop, physically force them to stop, which would instill anger in the child
  Must shut down anger response or behaviour will be reinforced
• Japanese mothers explain why the behaviour hurts others, appealing to children’s desire to please/cooperate
  
  • Encourage development of positive emotions and
    discourage self-focused appraisals that would lead to
    anger
    - Instead of trying to extinguish anger they try
    to increase sadness and subsequently increase
    positive emotions by doing the right thing and
    discouraging self-focused appraisals that would
    ultimately lead to anger

Question 72

What are the 3 reasons for heightened emotions in adolescence?

Answer 72

1. Increased change in activities that the adolescent will do that causes resistance as adults try to restrict adolescents’ freedoms
2. Puberty occurs, which is a better predictor of increased emotional intensity than age itself
3. Time of increased risk taking of potentially dangerous activities (e.g. unprotected sex, fast driving, drugs etc.) at the expense of later consequences

Question 73

Popular hypothesis is that increased risk-taking is due to _________ not being developed enough until late teens/early 20s. ________ acts as “brake” on dangerous impulses, especially exciting or fun ones

Answer 73

Prefrontal cortex

Question 74

Luna, Padmanabhan and O’Hearn (2010) flashed light to left and right, and asked viewer to look the opposite direction (inhibit urge to follow direction). What were their findings with respect to its difficulty for young children and teenagers?

Answer 74

• Found young children find this task difficult, and even adults are quicker to look towards light than look away from it
  
  • Improves through teenage years, ability to inhibit
    yourself correlated with prefrontal cortex maturation

Question 75

Most teenagers are able to inhibit unwanted impulses, with ______ _____being a more significant factor

Answer 75

Peer pressure

Question 76

How did Qu et al’s (2015) findings go against the idea that brain maturation is needed as a break in the prefrontal cortex to stop dangerous impulses?

Answer 76

• Found that people more successful in inhibiting risky activities showed less activation in the prefrontal cortex while inhibiting those impulses
• Likely that individuals needed less activation because they found it easier to inhibit their impulses, or their impulses were less strong compared to others

Question 77

In cross-sections studies, reported happiness declines from age __ until about age __, and then starts increasing. Why?

Answer 77

18, 50
- Midlife is difficult with work and home responsibilities peaking
- Healthy people over 70 years old report the highest subjective well-being

Question 78

More happiness in elderly could be due to _______ ____.

Answer 78

Measurement error

• Ratings of happiness/satisfaction may not mean the same thing for an older generation than a younger one
• However, brain recording show older adults respond more strongly to pleasant photos, whereas young adults respond more strongly to sad/frightening photos

Question 79

What is the first reason why anxiety and anger decreases with age?

Answer 79

1. People become more skilled at controlling their emotions with age

• Gross et al. (1997) asked American and Norwegian participants about their emotional experiences
• Found that in self-reports, older adults rated themselves as less emotionally expressive, less impulsive, and better able to control their emotions than young adults

Question 80

Explain the methods of Shiota & Levenson’s (2009) study

Answer 80

• Asked young, middle-age and older adults to watch very sad or disgusting film clips
  
  • E.g. Someone reacting to death of loved one (sad),
    eating animal intestines (disgusting)
  • After first few clips, participants were asked to use 1
    of 2 reappraisal strategies
    1. Detached reappraisal – thinking about
    unemotional aspects of the clip
    2. Positive Reappraisal – thinking about positive
    aspects of the events in the clip

Question 81

Explain the findings of Shiota & Levenson’s (2009) study and what they suggest

Answer 81

• Older adults benefitted less from the detached reappraisal instructions than younger adults
  
  • Older adults had smaller decreases in distress and
    physiological activity
• Older adults benefited more from the positive reappraisal instructions than younger adults
• Suggests focusing on positive aspects helps older adults regulate their emotions effectively

Question 82

What is the second reason why anxiety and anger decreases with age?

Answer 82

2. Their situations change to have less conflicts
   - E.g. less work-related conflicts, less sexual jealousies, spending more time with friends and family
   - E.g. more financially secure, less job obligations
   - E.g. more time for children and grandchildren without full responsibility of day-to-day care

Question 83

What is the third reason why anxiety and anger decreases with age?

Answer 83

3. Sympathetic nervous system becomes weaker
   
   • Heart response rate to emotional events decline
     with age

Question 84

Anxiety and anger decreasing with age due to the sympathetic nervous system becoming weaker is aligned with what theory?

Answer 84

James Lang theory because the heart rate response is weaker, they have less salient emotional events and so the saliency of the emotional events in general declines w/ age

Question 85

What is the fourth reason why anxiety and anger decreases with age?

Answer 85

4. Priorities in life change with age
   
   • Young people build towards future, often having to
     face difficult and unpleasant situations
   • Older adults are less concerned with the future,
     motivated to enjoy present

Question 86

Describe the socioemotional selectivity theory

Answer 86

Socioemotional selectivity theory: midlife triggers an increase in adults’ motivation to make the most of their remaining time

• Young people are more likely to choose new relationships (expand experiences), whereas older people prefer to be with family and long-term friends
• Older adults are less likely to quarrel with partners, and more likely to express affection during a discussion

Question 87

Older people in the US (but not Japan) deliberately shift their attention away from unpleasant events and towards positive ones. What does this suggest with respect to bias?

Answer 87

Older adults have a positivity bias (biased to positive stimuli) whereas other adult groups pay more attention to threatening emotional images (negativity bias)

Question 88

Mather & Carstensen (2003) wanted to evaluate the positivity bias. Describe their methods.

Answer 88

• Presented neutral expression alongside either a pleasant or unpleasant face on a computer screen
  - Faces would disappear, and a small dot would
  appear on either left or right side
  - Participants had to indicate position of the dot as
  fast as possible

Question 89

Describe Mather & Carstensen’s (2003) findings.

Answer 89

• Young adults responded to the dot equally rapidly regardless of location
• Older adults (mean age 74) responded more slowly if the dot appeared where the sad/angry face had been, and faster if it replaced a smiling face
  
  • Positive face drew attention more for older adults

Question 90

According to research, older adults recount positive information from autobiographical memories more than young adults. What is the caveat to such?

Answer 90

Caveat: older adults being drawn to positive stimuli may not have a strong effect outside the lab

• In more complex rooms with a variety of positive, negative, and neutral stimuli, older and younger adults divide their attention among the stimuli in similar proportions