Mood Regulation in Real Time

Abstract

Mechanisms have been proposed to underlie differences between younger and older adults in real-time mood regulation, but these mechanisms have not yet been shown to predict mood outcomes. One such mechanism is age-related positivity effects in attention and memory. In this paper, I take one form of this possible mechanism –positive looking patterns – and consider whether 1) older adults prefer positive looking, and 2) positive looking helps older adults regulate their mood in real-time. Evidence is more consistent for the former than the latter. A similar exercise is needed for other possible forms (positive memory) and other possible mechanisms that may explain age differences in real-time mood regulation.

Mobile eye tracking reveals little evidence for age differences in attentional selection for mood regulation.

“…Thus, positive looking may be generally preferred by older adults, but may only help a subset of older adults to regulate their mood. In contrast, we have found that younger adults’ moods tend to benefit from looking more at negative stimuli (Isaacowitz, 2012). …”

“…This corresponds to the emotion regulation strategy of attentional deployment, in which a person directs attention toward or away from an emotion-eliciting stimulus (Gross, 1998). Consistent with age-related positivity effects, numerous studies have found age differences in preferences, such that older adults look less at negative and more at positive stimuli (see Isaacowitz, 2012; Nikitin & Freund, 2011). …”

“…Whereas studies of attentional deployment tend to find older adults displaying a more positive looking pattern (Isaacowitz, 2012), age differences disappeared when participants could more actively choose what stimuli they looked at. Moreover, whereas positive looking patterns have been found to predict better moods for older but not younger adults (Isaacowitz, 2012), giving participants a more active role in choosing the stimuli they were exposed to revealed no age differences in looking-mood relationships. In both age groups, selecting positive stimuli led to better moods, and selecting negative stimuli led to worse moods.…”

Middle-aged adults facing skin cancer information: Fixation, mood, and behavior.

“…Moreover, by investigating mood effects in addition to attentional ones, we can also answer questions about potential age differences (and similarities) in the relationship between looking and mood regulation in a way that has not previously been done in midlife (Isaacowitz, 2012). …”

Just Change the Channel? Studying Effects of Age on Emotion Regulation Using a TV Watching Paradigm

“…Specifically, SAVI posits that older adults shift toward strategies that allow them to regulate before a full-blown emotional response has unfolded, rather than strategies aimed at reducing existing negative emotions (Charles, 2010). For example, older adults shift their attention towards positive and away from negative emotional content (Reed, Chan & Mikels, 2014), which is associated with better emotional outcomes (see Isaacowitz, 2012 for a review).…”