Age Differences in Affective Well‐Being: Context Matters

Abstract

The study of emotion across the adult lifespan requires an understanding of how life circumstances change with age. With this knowledge, we can predict when age is related to increases in affective well-being and when age no longer confers such benefits. In the current paper, we review research that finds age-related stability and even increases in affective well-being, as well as agerelated strengths in several emotion regulation strategies. We introduce the theory of Strength and Vulnerability Integration to predict age-related patterns in emotional experience across the adult lifespan, and to identify situations when age will no longer be related to improved emotionrelated outcomes. We suggest that only by understanding the context of daily life can we predict when and how age is related to affective well-being.Social and Personality Psychology Compass 3/5 (2009):

The Relationship between Age and Affective Reactivity in Depressed and Healthy Females Across the Lifespan

“…Results indicated that as a group, older adults reported the lowest levels of depressive symptoms. Despite age-related declines across cognitive functioning domains, research has shown that emotion regulation abilities improve with age [11]. Additionally, with increasing age recollections of past events are disproportionally more positive than negative.…”

Older adults, mealtime-related emotions, and functionalities : tailoring protein-enriched meals

“…implicit association tasks, lexical decision tasks) ). However, it seems that -at least for emotion measures -the inconsistent outcomes of such methods (Charles & Piazza, 2009;Kunzmann, Kupperbush, & Levenson, 2005;Seider, Shiota, Wahlen, & Levenson, 2011;Uchino, Birmingham, & Berg, 2010) and the age-related factors (e.g. physical changes of the skin and antihypertensive medication) make it challenging to select an appropriate method and to properly interpret the results.…”

“…For example, Baltes, Baltes, and Baltes (1990), Carstensen (1992), Labouvie-Vief (2003), and Charles and Piazza (2009) proposed theories related to the mainly positive affective orientation of older adults. In the social selectivity theory (SST), Carstensen (1992) explained seniors' focus on emotionally gratifying goals by 'the time that is left in life'.…”

“…In the social selectivity theory (SST), Carstensen (1992) explained seniors' focus on emotionally gratifying goals by 'the time that is left in life'. Later, Charles and Piazza (2009) reported in their strength and vulnerability integration theory (SAVI) that seniors' expanding knowledge about emotion regulation and their social lives could underlie their avoidance of negative experiences. Labouvie-Vief (2003) explained in her dynamic integration theory that seniors' preference for positive over negative information may be related to the greater cognitive demands required to process the latter.…”

“…As discussed in the section 'study design', we applied self-reporting methods, such as surveys and interviews, which might have disadvantages related to their cognitive/explicit nature (Barrett, Mesquita, Ochsner, & Gross, 2007;Kahneman, 2003;. However, in the case of (food-evoked) emotions, it seems at this point challenging to select a suitable alternative to the explicit tools, due to inconsistent outcome measures and age-related factors (see section 'study design ' and Charles & Piazza, 2009;Kunzmann, Kupperbush, & Levenson, 2005;Seider, Shiota, Wahlen, & Levenson, 2011;Uchino, Birmingham, & Berg, 2010). Therefore, it seems relevant to systematically examine the dependency on stimulus, method, and chronological age of e.g.…”