Emotion Regulation in Adulthood and Aging: Preference and Effectiveness

项目摘要 情绪老化的主要模型表明，老年人更喜欢某些一般的情绪调节 策略，并使用特定的策略来实施它们，例如更多地参与积极的内容。大多数工作 到目前为止，关于情绪调节和衰老的研究主要集中在记录和理解年龄 不同之处。然而，最近的研究结果发现，在两个年龄组中， 个人使用的策略以及他们实施这些策略的具体策略。我们建议个人 任何年龄段的人都表现出典型的情绪调节倾向--一套一般的策略和具体的 他们在大多数情况下使用的策略，这些策略推动了对年龄相似性的发现。与此同时，与年龄相关的 变化有时可能会导致个人改变他们的典型倾向，也许倾向于更积极的 战术特征，如社会情绪选择性理论所预测的。发现年龄相似性的研究 情绪调节可以利用跨年龄段的典型倾向，而研究表明 发现年龄差异可能会利用与年龄相关的过程，这些过程有助于改变典型的倾向。为了测试 为此，我们将首先进行一项经验抽样研究，以确定情绪的模式和强度 年轻人、中老年人和老年人在日常生活中的调节倾向。然后，我们将评估 这些参与者在一套标准化的实验室任务中的倾向，以确定 日常生活中的趋势与实验室中显示的趋势一致。接下来，我们将模拟与年龄相关的潜在变化 在实验室中，通过让参与者在认知负荷和 一项艰苦的体力任务的背景。最后，参与者将完成一组额外的体验 抽样调查情绪调节倾向在3-4年期间的稳定性和变化。通过 在日常生活和实验室中研究相同的人，几年后，我们会更好地 了解推动年龄相似性的典型情绪调节倾向的相互作用，以及 这些过程可能会使老年人偏离他们的典型倾向，从而产生年龄差异。 研究结果将推动我们对衰老和情绪调节的理解，不仅考虑一般情况 战略，也包括具体的战术和趋势，并可能建议各级干预目标 为那些不能成功调节情绪的人提供倾向、战略和战术。

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.