Emotion Regulation in Adulthood and Aging: Preference and Effectiveness

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Project Summary Prominent models of emotional aging propose that older adults prefer certain general emotion regulation strategies and implement them using certain tactics, such as engaging more with positive content. Most work to date on emotion regulation and aging has therefore focused on documenting and understanding age differences. However, recent findings have found substantial similarities across age groups in both the strategies individuals use and the specific tactics by which they implement them. We propose that individuals of any age show a typical profile of emotion regulation tendencies—a set of general strategies and specific tactics they use in most situations, and that these drive findings on age similarity. Meanwhile, age-related changes may sometimes lead individuals to modify their typical tendencies, perhaps in favor of a more positive tactic profile, as predicted by theories like socioemotional selectivity theory. Studies that find age similarities in emotion regulation could be tapping into typical tendencies that hold across age groups, whereas studies that find age differences may be tapping into age-related processes that serve to modify typical tendencies. To test this, we will first conduct an experience sampling study to determine patterns in and strength of emotion regulation tendencies of younger, middle-aged, and older adults in their everyday lives. Then, we will assess these same participants' tendencies in a set of standardized lab tasks to determine the extent to which tendencies in everyday life match those displayed in the lab. Next, we will mimic potential age-related changes in the lab by having participants perform emotional regulation choice tasks while under cognitive load and in the context of an effortful physical task. Finally, participants will complete an additional set of experience sampling bursts to investigate stability and change in emotion regulation tendencies over a 3-4 year period. By studying the same individuals across both everyday life and in the lab, and over several years, we will better understand the interplay of typical emotion regulation tendencies that push toward age-similarity, and the processes that may push older adults away from their typical tendencies and thus yield age differences. Findings will advance our understanding of aging and emotion regulation by considering not only general strategies but also specific tactics and tendencies, and may suggest intervention targets across the levels of tendencies, strategies, and tactics for those individuals who are not able to regulate emotions successfully.