Health Status, Age, and Emotion Regulation

与早期的理论和消极的刻板印象相反，情感不会随着年龄的增长而减少。事实上，越来越多的研究已经证明，在整个生命周期中，情绪调节完好无损，甚至有所改善。然而，在我们将这种成功老龄化的模式推广到所有成年人之前，我们必须研究这种现象的可能例外。记录这些过程中年龄差异的研究主要集中在健康的成年人身上，目前还不清楚身体健康问题如何改变情绪体验的轨迹。拟议的研究，社会情绪选择性理论的指导下，包括三项研究，以检查慢性身体健康状况的人之间的情感体验的发展轨迹，以及身体健康状况如何影响情感幸福感和用于维持幸福感的策略的年龄差异。更好地理解年龄，健康状况和情感幸福之间的相互关系将有利于应用和理论心理学。慢性健康状况在老年人中是正常的，但健康心理学家往往依赖于临床干预措施，在他们的设计中不考虑年龄差异。另一方面，专门为老年人设计的干预措施是基于对健康个体情绪调节的研究，而不是那些患有慢性疾病的人。此外，随着时间的推移，老年人中哪些亚组的情感困扰风险最大还不确定。具体目标是：1）检查身体条件如何改变情感幸福的发展轨迹，2）检查遗传和环境 影响慢性疼痛和情感幸福感的发展轨迹之间的协变，3）检查慢性健康状况的成年人中情感幸福感和情绪调节策略的年龄差异，以及4）检查慢性健康状况如何影响老年人的情感幸福感和情绪调节策略。

Contrary to early theories and negative stereotypes, emotions do not diminish with old age. In fact, a growing number of studies have documented intact, and even improved, emotion regulation across the life span. Before we generalize this model of successful aging to all adults, however, we must examine possible exceptions to this phenomenon. Studies documenting age differences in these processes have focused on predominantly healthy adults, and it is unclear how physical health problems may alter the trajectory of emotional experience. The proposed research, guided by socioemotional selectivity theory, includes three studies to examine the developmental trajectory of emotional experience among people with chronic physical health conditions, and how physical health conditions influence age differences in affective well-being and strategies used to maintain wellbeing. A better understanding of the interrelationships between age, health status and affective well-being would benefit both applied and theoretical psychology. Chronic health conditions are normative among older adults, yet health psychologists often rely on clinical interventions that do not consider age differences in their design. On the other hand, interventions designed specifically for older adults are based on studies of emotion regulation among healthy individuals, not those with chronic health conditions. Moreover, it is uncertain what subgroups of older adults are at greatest risk for affective distress over time. The specific aims are: 1) to examine how physical conditions alter the developmental trajectory of affective well-being, 2) to examine genetic and environmental influences in the covariation between chronic pain and the developmental trajectory of affective well-being, 3) to examine age differences in affective well-being and emotion regulation strategies among adults with chronic health conditions, and 4) to examine how chronic health conditions influence affective well-being and emotion regulation strategies among older adults.