Decoding Age Differences in Emotional Well-being and Positivity through Everyday Natural Conversations

项目摘要 随着年龄的增长，个人往往面临更多的负面生活事件，如健康状况下降或死亡的人。 心爱的人但是，老年人往往比年轻人报告更好的情绪健康（例如，更积极 影响，更大的幸福），老年人表现出更大的关注和欣赏积极的 与年轻人相比，相对于负面信息的信息。这些差异表明，基础 认知和情感过程可能在老年时发生变化，总体上变得更加积极。然而，在这方面， 大多数关于这些年龄差异的现有证据是基于自我报告的测量和基于实验室的 任务因此，不确定这些年龄差异在“现实世界”中是否可以观察到。而且 在情绪健康或对积极信息的欣赏方面存在年龄差异的原因尚不清楚。的 拟议的项目是一项可行性研究，其中创新的行为评估将用于测试 情绪健康和对积极信息的欣赏的年龄差异是否可以在 自然的，日常的社会环境。此外，对当前时间的行为评估 观点将被测试为情绪幸福感年龄差异的可能机制， 对积极信息的赞赏。成年人寿命样本（N =120; 40名年轻人，40名中年人 成年人和40名老年人）将被招募佩戴数字记录设备四天（两个工作日 和两个周末），每天至少连续记录八小时。音频记录将在 编码为情绪健康，积极与消极，和时间观念。预计老年人将 与更好的情绪健康有关。也就是说，老年人的谈话预计将包含更多 积极情绪的行为指标（例如，笑声，平静）。预计老年也与 更重视积极的信息，而不是消极的信息，因为积极的信息比例更大， 负面内容多于负面内容。最后，年龄越大，注意力越集中 在现在，而不是过去或未来，由谈话内容和动词时态索引。差分时间 观点可以解释情绪健康和积极性的年龄差异。拟议项目将 澄清情绪健康和对积极信息的欣赏方面的年龄差异是否 在日常生活中观察到的现象，并可能阐明一个潜在的机制-现在的时间 perspective.拟议的可行性研究将提供一种新颖的，生态有效的评估工具， 幸福感，积极性和时间观念在成年人的寿命样本，并将作为基础， 团队成员之间的未来合作和健康老龄化研究。特别是，这项研究的结果 研究可以为干预措施提供信息，以促进情绪健康和随后的身心健康， 老年人，以及所有年龄段的人。

Project Summary With age, individuals are often faced with more negative life events, such as declining health or the death of a loved one. But, older adults tend to report better emotional well-being than younger adults (e.g., more positive affect, greater happiness), and older adults show a greater attention to and appreciation for positive information relative to negative information compared to younger adults. These differences suggest that basic cognitive and emotional processes may change in older age, becoming more positive in general. However, most of the existing evidence regarding these age differences is based on self-report measures and lab-based tasks. Thus, it is uncertain whether these age differences are observable in the “real-world.” Furthermore, the reasons for age differences in emotional well-being or appreciation for positive information are unclear. The proposed project is a feasibility study in which an innovative behavioral assessment will be utilized to test whether age differences in emotional well-being and appreciation of positive information can be captured in natural, everyday social environments. Furthermore, a behavioral assessment of present moment time perspective will be tested as a possible mechanism underlying age differences in emotional well-being and appreciation for positive information. An adult life-span sample (N =120; 40 young adults, 40 middle-aged adults, and 40 older adults) will be recruited to wear a digital recording device for four days (two week days and two weekend days), recording for at least eight consecutive hours each day. Audio recordings will then be coded for emotional well-being, positivity versus negativity, and time perspective. Older age is expected to be related to better emotional well-being. That is, older adults' conversations are expected to contain more behavioral indicators of positive mood (e.g., laughter, calmness). Older age is also expected to be associated with greater emphasis on positive than negative information, as indexed by a greater proportion of positive conversation content than negative content. Finally, older age is expected to be associated with greater focus on present time, rather than past or future, as indexed by conversation content and verb tense. Differential time perspective may account for age differences in emotional well-being and positivity. The proposed project will clarify whether age differences in emotional well-being and appreciation for positive information are phenomena observable in everyday life and will potentially elucidate an underlying mechanism – present time perspective. The proposed feasibility study will provide a novel, ecologically valid assessment tool of emotional well-being, positivity, and time perspective in an adult lifespan sample and will serve as the foundation for future collaboration between the team members and research on healthy aging. In particular, findings from this study may inform interventions to promote emotional well-being and subsequent mental and physical health in older adults, as well as people of all ages.