Emotion Regulation in Adulthood and Aging: Preference and Effectiveness

描述(申请人提供)：老年人对情绪刺激的注意力表现出积极效应；我们过去的研究发现，使用固定的眼神跟踪，老年人对负面刺激的注视较少。最近关于移动眼球跟踪的研究表明，在某些情况下，老年人可能也会比年轻人选择更少的负面情况进行互动。也有证据表明，老年人比年轻人更有效地进行积极的重新评估。在这三种方式中，老年人在处理情绪信息以及潜在的情绪调节方面可能比年轻人表现出更多的“积极”。虽然与年龄相关的积极效应最初被概念化为社会情绪选择性理论(SST)的一部分，但它们也可能对情绪调节产生影响。目前的应用旨在将基于SST的研究年龄相关积极效应的方法与研究情绪调节的过程模型方法进行经验性结合，通过检查积极观看和积极重新评价等积极情绪调节形式的年龄差异。该应用考虑了两个问题：不同类型的积极情绪调节策略的偏好是否存在差异，不同的积极情绪调节策略在实时情绪变化方面的有效性是否存在差异？三项研究将考察从较年轻的成年到中年再到老年，潜在积极情绪调节策略的偏好和有效性的年龄差异。研究1是一项基于实验室的研究，将调查年龄在情绪调节策略偏好和有效性方面的作用，这些策略在 过程模型：情境选择、情境修正、注意运用、认知改变和反应修正。研究二将使用经验抽样来调查在日常生活中对这些情绪调节策略的偏好和有效性的年龄差异。研究3将直接测试改变目标是否可以解释年龄差异 积极情绪调节策略的使用和有效性。研究结果将促进我们对衰老和情绪调节的理解，并可能为那些无法成功调节情绪的人提供干预目标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Older adults show positivity effects in their attention toward emotional stimuli; using stationary eye tracking, our past work has found that older adults fixate less on negative stimuli. More recent work with mobile eye tracking suggests that, in some cases, older adults may also select fewer negative situations to interact with than younger adults. There is also evidence that older adults are more effective at positive reappraisal than younger adults. These are three ways in which older adults may display more "positivity" in their processing of emotional information, and potentially their emotion regulation than do younger adults. While age-related positivity effects were originally conceptualized as part of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST), they may also have implications for emotion regulation. The current application aims to empirically marry the SST-based approach to studying age-related positivity effects with the Process Model approach to studying emotion regulation, by examining age differences in positive forms of emotion regulation, such as positive looking and positive reappraisal. The application considers 2 questions: Are there are differences in preferences for different types of positive emotion regulation strategies, and are there are differences in the effectiveness of different positive emotion regulation strategies in terms of real-time mood change? Three studies will examine age differences in preferences and effectiveness of potentially positive emotion regulation strategies, from younger adulthood through midlife and into old age. Study 1 is a laboratory-based study that will investigate the rol of age in preferences for, and effectiveness of, the emotion regulation strategies specified in the Process Model: situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modification. Study 2 will use experience sampling to investigate age differences in preferences for, and effectiveness of, these strategies in emotion regulation in everyday life. Study 3 will directly test whether shifting goals can account for age differences in the use and effectiveness of positive emotion regulation strategies. Findings will advance our understanding of aging and emotion regulation, and may suggest targets for intervention for those who are not able to regulate emotions successfully.