Age Differences in Affective and Cardiovascular Responses to a Negative Social Interaction: The Role of Goals, Appraisals, and Emotion Regulation
Age Differences in Affective and Cardiovascular Responses to a Negative Social Interaction: The Role of Goals, Appraisals, and Emotion Regulation
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DOI：
10.1037/a0036621
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发表时间：
2014-07-01
影响因子：
4
通讯作者：
Charles, Susan T.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Luong, Gloria;Charles, Susan T.
与年轻人相比，老年人对人际关系紧张的情感反应通常较少，但很少有研究直接调查解释这种效应的机制。本研究探讨了老年人在受控的消极社交互动过程中对目标、评价和情绪调节策略（即避免冲突/缓和冲突、自我分心）的不同认可是否可以解释冲突讨论的情感和心血管反应的年龄差异。参与者（N = 159；80 名年轻人，79 名老年人）与不愉快的同伴讨论了假设的困境。在整个实验室过程中，对参与者的主观情绪体验、血压和脉搏进行了评估。与年轻人相比，老年人通常对任务表现出较少的反应性（负面影响反应性、舒张压反应性和脉搏率反应性），并且任务后的正面和负面影响恢复更明显。老年人认为这项任务更令人愉快，而同伴则被认为更讨人喜欢，并且更强烈地认可在任务中表现良好的目标，这分别介导了消极情感反应、脉搏率反应和积极情感恢复（即任务后积极情感的增加）的年龄差异。此外，年轻人更多地使用自我分散注意力，表现出更多的负面情绪反应，而老年人则没有。总之，研究结果表明，与年轻人相比，老年人对不愉快的社交互动的负面反应较少，而这些反应的部分原因是与年轻人相比，老年人追求不同的动机目标，对社交互动的威胁性评估较少，以及更有效地利用自我分心。
Older adults often report less affective reactivity to interpersonal tensions than younger individuals, but few studies have directly investigated mechanisms explaining this effect. The current study examined whether older adults' differential endorsement of goals, appraisals, and emotion regulation strategies (i.e., conflict avoidance/de-escalation, self-distraction) during a controlled negative social interaction may explain age differences in affective and cardiovascular responses to the conflict discussion. Participants (N = 159; 80 younger adults, 79 older adults) discussed hypothetical dilemmas with disagreeable confederates. Throughout the laboratory session, participants' subjective emotional experience, blood pressure, and pulse rate were assessed. Older adults generally exhibited less reactivity (negative affect reactivity, diastolic blood pressure reactivity, and pulse rate reactivity) to the task and more pronounced positive and negative affect recovery following the task than did younger adults. Older adults appraised the task as more enjoyable and the confederate as more likeable and more strongly endorsed goals to perform well on the task, which mediated age differences in negative affect reactivity, pulse rate reactivity, and positive affect recovery (i.e., increases in posttask positive affect), respectively. In addition, younger adults showed increased negative affect reactivity with greater use of self-distraction, whereas older adults did not. Together, findings suggest that older adults respond less negatively to unpleasant social interactions than younger adults, and these responses are explained in part by older adults' pursuit of different motivational goals, less threatening appraisals of the social interaction, and more effective use of self-distraction, compared with younger adults.