Age Differences in Emotional Reactivity: The Sample Case of Sadness.

Abstract

Past studies have suggested that the intensity of subjective reactions to emotion-arousing stimuli remains stable, whereas the magnitude of autonomic reactions declines with age. The goal of the present studies was to investigate whether this evidence will generalize to newly edited films dealing with age-relevant themes such as the loss of loved ones. In Study 1, greater self-reported sadness was found in older than in younger adults in response to all films. Findings of Study 2, which were based on an independent sample, replicated those of Study 1. In addition, 6 indicators of autonomic nervous system activity were assessed. Young and old adults did not differ in their autonomic reactions to the films. This evidence suggests that when older people are exposed to stimuli featuring themes that are relevant to their age group, they show greater subjective and physiological reactions than would be expected on the basis of past research.

Stability and change in affective experience across the adult life span: Analyses with a national sample from Germany.

“…As will be elaborated below, one explanation refers to the idea that each stage in the life cycle (e.g., young adulthood, old age) is typified by a specific configuration of environmental challenges as well as personal needs, beliefs, and future expectations that makes the experience of certain emotions more likely than the experience of other emotions (see also Haase, Seider, Shiota, & Levenson, 2012;Kunzmann & Grühn, 2005 Given that, relative to older adults, young adults pursue many future-related goals and have a strong need to accomplish them, the elicitor of anger, that is, the appraisal that one's own goals are intentionally ignored or blocked by others, should be more frequent and salient (i.e., easily elicited). In addition, the situational control appraisals, action tendencies, and social motivations typical of anger are likely to be more readily accessible in young adulthood than in old age.…”

Affect dynamics across the lifespan: With age, heart rate reacts less strongly, but recovers more slowly from unpleasant emotional situations.

“…In contrast, avoidance of interpersonal conflicts led to less reactivity in negative affect among older people (Charles et al, 2009). However, facing complex hassle situations (Wrzus et al, 2013) or experiencing intense sadness (Kunzmann & Grühn, 2005;Seider et al, 2011) led to stronger experiential and physiological reactivity among older people. Sadness is assumed to be highly relevant in older adulthood because of its association with loss and goal disengagement (Smith & Lazarus, 1993;Streubel & Kunzmann, 2011).…”

Age Differences in Arousal, Perception of Affective Pictures, and Emotional Memory Enhancement: Appraisal, Electrodermal Activity, and Imaging Data

“…This indicates affective factors in memory encoding and consolidation in older adults, other than physiological reactivity (SCR) and perception of affective quality. Although there is evidence that older adults may show equally reactive physiological responses as younger adults when presented with age-related stimuli (Kunzmann & Grühn, 2005). Hence, a more age-related stimulus selection than the one used in our study could have yielded a more age-homogenous relationship between SCR at encoding and memory performance.…”

“…However, there are also findings of older adults giving higher ratings of arousal than younger adults (e.g., Kunzmann & Grühn, 2005;Smith, Hillman, & Duley, 2005). Still other self-reports of the perception of affective quality using standardized stimuli have resulted in mixed results.…”

“…The same effect also comes in less dramatic forms. Any experience of personal affective relevance may enhance memory (Kensinger, 2006;Kensinger, Garoff-Eaton, & Schacter, 2007;Kunzmann & Grühn, 2005). It relates to the constructive effect which the transient heightening of arousal levels has on memory by enhancing processes of attention and encoding, in contrast to the detrimental effects of highly stressful (especially continuously stressfully experienced) events on the same processes (Lupien et al, 2007;McEwen, 2007;Sapolsky, 2003).…”