What Do We Know About Aging and Emotion Regulation?

Isaacowitz, Derek M.

doi:10.1177/17456916211059819

Cited by 53 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 99 publications

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“…Beyond an age-related shift in the motivation to feel good, scholars have theorized that, with increasing age, individuals become more competent at regulating their emotions (e.g., Carstensen et al, 1999;Charles, 2010;Urry & Gross, 2010, but see Isaacowitz, 2022. While this assumption is common and was supported by early studies (e.g., John & Gross, 2004), the empirical evidence on changes in emotion regulation strategies is surprisingly mixed (Allen & Windsor, 2019;Isaacowitz, 2022). In their recent systematic review comparing younger and older adults' use of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation (Gross, 1998; see also chapter 2, this volume), Allen and Windsor (2019) concluded that there are indeed age differences in the preferred use of situation selection and attentional deployment.…”

Section: Emotion Regulation Strategies Across Adulthoodmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Altogether, the current empirical picture of how emotion regulation changes across the adult life span is far from clear (Allen & Windsor, 2019;Isaacowitz, 2022). Instead of changes in the use of specific emotion regulation strategies, it is possible that greater emotion regulation flexibility (i.e., ability to flexibly tailor regulatory efforts to situational demands) might account for greater well-being in later life.…”

Section: Regulation Of Specific Emotions: the Case Of Anger And Sadnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changes in Emotion Regulation across the Life Span

Meier¹,

Stephens²,

Haase³

2023

Preprint

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Many of us experience loss and decline as we age. It might seem plausible that our mental health would follow a similar downward trajectory. Yet, for many individuals, this does not seem to be the case. One prominent view in the emotional aging literature is that increases in emotion regulation capacities account for this well-being or mental health paradox in late life. This will be the focus of the present chapter. Our aim is to shed light on the nuance and complexity of how emotion regulation changes across adulthood. Following a brief overview of theories and key concepts, we will review empirical studies of how emotion regulation changes across the adult life span, discuss links between emotion regulation and mental health (with a focus on depression and anxiety), present an example study, and highlight directions for future research.

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Section: Emotion Regulation Strategies Across Adulthoodmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Regulation Of Specific Emotions: the Case Of Anger And Sadnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Emotion Regulation across the Life Span

Meier¹,

Stephens²,

Haase³

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The PE has been associated with increased emotional stability ( Brassen et al, 2011 ) and better immune function ( Kalokerinos et al, 2014 ). Accordingly, emotionally healthy older people appear to engage differently in emotion regulation compared to healthy young ( Gross et al, 1997 ; Nolen-Hoeksema and Aldao, 2011 ; but see Isaacowitz, 2022 ) and older depressed individuals ( Brassen et al, 2012 ). Older people may even become better at regulating their emotions ( Urry and Gross, 2010 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Scheibe and Blanchard-Fields, 2009 ; Shiota and Levenson, 2009 ), which may be related to age-associated neural changes. In a similar vein, a recent review suggests that older adults’ brains may automatically engage in behavior leading to positive emotions through action-value signaling from vmPFC/ventral ACC promoting such behavior ( Isaacowitz, 2022 ). Several neuroimaging findings support this idea, which are presented in the next section.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of particular interest may be paradigms that directly link decision-making to validated, non-monetary, emotional outcomes such as regret ( Brassen et al, 2012 ). There is debate about whether and how age affects emotion regulation ( Isaacowitz, 2022 ). Our model highlights a shift from flexible/explicit to habitual/implicit processes in emotional goal adaptation, regulation activation, and strategy in healthy aging that has rarely been considered in this debate due to the nature of typical study designs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The need to change: Is there a critical role of midlife adaptation in mental health later in life?

Thams

Brassen

2023

eLife

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Although late-life depression (LLD) is a serious health problem and more common than dementia in people over 60, it is underdiagnosed and undertreated. The cognitive-emotional etiology of LLD is particularly poorly understood. This is in contrast to the now extensive literature from psychology and cognitive neuroscience on the characteristics of emotionally healthy aging. This research consistently shows a change in emotional processing in older adults that is modulated by prefrontal regulation. Lifespan theories explain this change in terms of neurocognitive adaptation to limited opportunities and resources that typically occur in the second half of life. Epidemiological data on an increase in well-being after a low point around age 50 suggest that the majority of people seem quite capable of making this adaptation, even though empirical evidence for a causal modulation of this so called ‘paradox of aging’ and for the role of the midlife dip is still lacking. Intriguingly, LLD is associated with deficits in emotional, cognitive, and prefrontal functions similar to those shown to be crucial for healthy adaptation. Suspected causes of these deficits, such as white matter lesions or affective instability, become apparent as early as midlife when internal and external changes as well as daily challenges set in. Based on these findings, we propose that some individuals who develop depression at older ages may not have been able to successfully implement self-regulatory adaptation at midlife. Here, we review the current evidence and theories on successful aging, the neurobiology of LLD, and well-being across the lifespan. Drawing on recent advances in lifespan theories, emotion regulation research, and cognitive neuroscience, we propose a model of successful versus unsuccessful adaptation that emphasizes the increasing need for implicit habitual control and resource-based regulatory choice during midlife.

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Aging modulates frontal lobes involvement in emotion regulation processing

Orlando,

Filippini

2023

J of Neuroscience Research

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Emotion regulation (ER) is the process by which individuals can modulate the intensity of their emotional experience and it plays a crucial role in daily life. So far, behavioral analyses seem to suggest that ER ability remains stable throughout the lifespan. However, imaging studies evaluating the neural correlates of ER performance during the aging process have shown mixed results. In this study, we used the “Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience cohort sample” to investigate: (1) ER behavioral performance and (2) the differential association between brain measures (based on both structural and functional connectivity data) and ER performance, in a group of younger/middle‐aged participants (N = 159; age range: 18y < x < 58y) relative to a group of older healthy subjects (N = 136; age range: 58y < =x < 89y). Whereas we found no group‐related differences either in ER behavioral data or the association between ER performance and structural data, we did observe that ER performance was differentially correlated in our two study groups to functional connectivity measures in the fronto‐insular‐temporal network, which has been shown to be involved in emotional processing. Group‐related differences were specifically localized in a cluster of voxels within the anterior cingulate areas which revealed a reverse pattern between our study groups: in younger/middle‐aged participants better ER performance was associated with increase connectivity, whereas among older participants better ER performance was related to reduced connectivity. Based on our results, we suggest that a de‐differentiation mechanism, known to affect the frontal lobes brain activity and connectivity in older subjects, might explain our findings.

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What Do We Know About Aging and Emotion Regulation?

Cited by 53 publications

References 99 publications

Changes in Emotion Regulation across the Life Span

Changes in Emotion Regulation across the Life Span

The need to change: Is there a critical role of midlife adaptation in mental health later in life?

Aging modulates frontal lobes involvement in emotion regulation processing

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