Age differences in managing response to sadness elicitors using attentional deployment, positive reappraisal and suppression

Age differences in emotion regulation strategy use and flexibility in daily life

OBJECTIVES

Age-related shifts in emotion regulation patterns are important for explaining preserved emotional well-being in late adulthood amidst declines in physical and cognitive health. Although several studies have examined age-related shifts in emotion regulation strategy use, age differences in how specific strategies are flexibly adapted to shifting contexts in daily life and the adaptiveness of such shifts remains poorly understood.

METHODS

130 younger adults (ages 22-35) and 130 older adults (ages 65-85) completed a modified Day Reconstruction Method Assessment and self-report questionnaires to examine age differences in emotion regulation strategy use and one aspect of emotion regulation flexibility (responsiveness) in daily life, and the adaptive implications of these differences.

RESULTS

Older adults exhibited more frequent acceptance use, less frequent distraction use, and less flexibility in the responsiveness of strategies with varying negative affect. Across age groups, the use of expressive suppression and distraction was associated with less adaptive outcomes, whereas higher acceptance responsiveness, positive reappraisal responsiveness, and situation selection responsiveness were associated with more adaptive outcomes. Age-group moderated the associations between adaptiveness metrics with the use and flexibility of several emotion regulation strategies.

CONCLUSION

The current findings provide early evidence of age-related decreases in emotion regulation flexibility as well as age-related shifts in the adaptiveness of emotion regulation patterns.

The role of engagement and arousal in emotion regulation: an EEG study

Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression are well-studied strategies of emotion regulation (ER). However, the results on their physiological basis are controversial. While in some studies, ER was accompanied by the inhibition of the nervous system, others suggested that ER even might increase arousal and engagement. We calculated the inter-subject correlation (ISC) and indices of engagement, valence and arousal of EEG during suppression, reappraisal, or natural watching of neutral and negative videos. First, both suppression and reappraisal provoked a higher ISC in comparison with watching negative or neutral videos. We consider this as a marker of engagement to the task and feedback processing required for ER. Second, the engagement index was lower during ER compared to watching negative videos in central electrodes, whereas both strategies provoked a higher engagement in frontal electrodes. Third, the arousal index of EEG was higher during all negative conditions; therefore, regulation required a certain level of arousal. In summary, different EEG measures seem to be sensitive to different aspects of ER.

Age-related reductions in arousal-enhanced memory are moderated by trait emotion regulation

Emotional arousal is known to enhance episodic memory in young adults. However, compared to valence, little is known about how healthy aging impacts arousal-enhanced memory effects. Furthermore, while emotion regulation is believed to improve with age, it is unclear how individual differences in emotion regulation influence arousal-enhanced memory. In this large-scale online study, we investigated the impact of age and individual differences in emotion regulation on arousal-enhanced memory. During encoding, participants made arousal ratings about negative, neutral, and positive images, and we compared their subsequent memory of high and low-arousal images. We found the impact of emotional arousal on memory was reduced with age, especially for older adults who habitually suppress their emotions. Our findings show that arousal-related memory benefits are reduced with advancing age, and that individual differences in habitual usage of emotion regulation impact these age-related alterations.

The Role of Autobiographical Resilience Memories in Emotion Regulation: An Account of Age Differences in Mnemonic and Positive Reappraisal

A lifetime of resilience through emotionally challenging experiences may benefit older adults, lending to emotion regulation mastery with time. Yet the influence of autobiographical experiences on momentary reappraisal, the reinterpretation of negative stimuli as more positive, has never been empirically tested. This online study examined the extent to which associating life memories of resilience with novel negative scenarios enhanced reappraisal efficacy and reduced difficulty to reappraise. Younger and older adults reappraised negative images by associating reappraisals to freely selected autobiographical resilience memories, cued autobiographical resilience memories, or by finding situational silver linings without mnemonic association (control). Changes in image emotional intensity ratings revealed no difference across reappraisal conditions for younger adults, while older adults most effectively down-regulated emotional intensity using the control reappraisal strategy. Older adults found autobiographical memories more helpful for mood regulation and less difficult to implement, and identified greater similarities between novel negative scenarios and their memories than younger adults. Surprisingly, greater similarity between resilience memories and negative images was associated with lower reappraisal efficacy for both age groups. Findings demonstrate the age-equivalent benefits of utilizing reappraisals associated with past narratives of resilience and suggest a sacrifice of immediate hedonic benefit for disproportionately greater subjective benefits with age.

Construction of Meta-Thinking Educational Program Based on Mental-Brain Simulation (MTMBS) and Evaluating its Effectiveness on Executive Functions, Emotion Regulation, and Impulsivity in Children With ADHD: A Resting-State Functional MRI Study

OBJECTIVE

The aim of present research was to make a Meta-Thinking educational program based on mental-brain simulation and to evaluate its effectiveness on executive functions, emotion regulation and impulsivity in children with ADHD.

METHODS

The research method was Embedded Design: Embedded Experimental Model. The research sample included 32 children with ADHD who were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. The intervention was implemented for eight sessions of 1.5 hr for the experimental group, and fMRI images were taken from them, while the control group didn't receive any treatment. Finally, using semi-structured interviews, coherent information was collected from the parents of the experimental group about the changes made. Data were analyzed with SPSS-24, MAXQDA, fMRIprep, and FSL software.

RESULTS

The Meta-Thinking Educational Program had effect on performance of ADHD children and suppressed brain regions related to DMN.

CONCLUSION

The Implementation of this educational program plays a vital role in improving psychological problems of children with ADHD.

The effect of fragmented sleep on emotion regulation ability and usage

Sleep has a profound effect on our mood, but insight in the mechanisms underlying this association is still lacking. We tested whether emotion regulation is a mediator in the relationship between fragmented sleep and mood disturbance. The effect of fragmented sleep on the emotion regulation strategies, including cognitive reappraisal, distraction, acceptance and suppression ability, was assessed. We further tested whether the use of these strategies, as well as rumination and self-criticism, mediated the association between fragmented sleep and negative and positive affect. Participants (N = 69) wore an actiwatch and filled in a sleep diary for 12 consecutive nights. They had one control night and one sleep fragmentation night. Emotion regulation ability was assessed with an experimental task. Usage of emotion regulation strategies and negative and positive affect were assessed four times during the day with a survey after the control and sleep fragmentation night. Cognitive reappraisal, distraction, acceptance and suppression ability did not differ between the sleep fragmentation and control condition. However, participants reported higher usage of rumination and distraction after the sleep fragmentation night and rumination significantly mediated the negative association between fragmented sleep and negative affect.

Are reframing strategies more effective than empathy in processing trauma reports? A pilot study

Listening to trauma reports can lead to the development of symptoms associated with secondary traumatization. This is particularly relevant for psychotherapists in practice, where psychologists need to estabilish effective strategies for processing and coping with such emotionally challenging events. This explorative study investigated adaptive reframing strategies for future therapists listening to trauma stories compared to feeling empathy for the client. In a mixed design, 42 postgraduate psychology students were randomly instructed to objectively distance themselves, reappraise, or feel empathetic while watching a video of a presumed trauma patient reporting a single violent act. An overall ANOVA did not reveal a difference between the reframing groups and the empathy group (between subjects manipulated) in their skin conductance level and heart rate variability during the video, as well as their change in state depression and state anxiety over the three measurements (before the video, after the video, and 2 days later). Nevertheless, an explorative t-test showed a significantly weaker rise in state depression and state anxiety from before the video to after the video in the reframing groups compared to the empathy group. This supports the suggestion that reframing strategies can be discussed as a protective factor against health issues such as secondary traumatization in therapists and should be examined in further studies in more detail.

The relationship between cognitive reserve and the spontaneous use of emotion regulation strategies in older adults: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Several studies reported cognitive reserve (CR) as an important factor in promoting healthy aging within a non-clinical aging population.

AIMS

The main goal of the present study is to investigate the link between higher levels of CR and more effective emotion regulation. In more detail, we examine the association between a number of CR proxies and the habitual use of two emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal and emotional suppression.

METHODS

Three hundred and ten older adults aged between 60 and 75 (mean = 64.45, SD = 4.37; 69.4% female) joined this cross-sectional study by filling out self-report measures of CR and emotion regulation.² RESULTS: Reappraisal and suppression use were correlated. Practicing different leisure activities constantly over many years, being more original and having a higher education promoted more frequent use of cognitive reappraisal. These CR proxies were also significantly related to suppression use, even though the percentage of variance explained was lower.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Exploring the role played by the cognitive reserve on different emotion regulation techniques can be useful in understanding which variables predict the use of antecedent-focused (reappraisal) or response-focused (suppression) emotion regulation strategies in aging individuals.

EXPRESS: How negative emotions affect young and older adults' numerosity estimation performance

In this study, we investigated the influence of negative emotions on numerosity estimation and whether this influence changes with aging during adulthood. Young and older adults were asked to estimate and compare the numerosity of collections of elements (cars or dots) with a two-digit number. Collections of elements were preceded by emotionally neutral (e.g., mushrooms) or emotionally negative (e.g., a corpse) pictures. Stimuli were easier (i.e., small-ratio) or harder (i.e., large-ratio) items. Young and older participants obtained similar numerosity estimation performance. Interestingly, participants were less accurate under negative emotions than under neutral emotions when they estimated numerosity of collections of abstract elements (i.e., dots). In contrast, participants improved their performance under negative emotions while estimating collections of non-abstract, daily-life elements (i.e., cars). These findings have important implications for furthering our understanding of the role of negative emotions in numerosity estimation and age-related differences therein.

Experiential, expressive, and physiological effects of positive and negative emotion regulation goals while reappraising amusing stimuli

We examined whether positive and negative emotion regulation (ER) goals while cognitively reappraising amusing stimuli differentially engage positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) systems. Forty-eight women watched 20-30s amusing film clips. They were instructed to either respond naturally (no ER goal) or emphasize the film clips' positive (positive ER goal) or negative (negative ER goal) aspects in their interpretation. We measured PA and NA system activity on experiential, expressive, and physiological response channels through self-reported amusement and disgust, electromyography of zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii, and autonomic nervous system reactivity from respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and pre-ejection period (PEP). Natural viewing (no ER goal) of amusing clips increased self-reported amusement (and to a lesser degree disgust), zygomaticus reactivity, and RSA. Compared to no and negative ER goals, reappraising the amusing clips with a positive ER goal decreased corrugator reactivity, decreasing negative emotional expression. Compared to no and positive ER goals, reappraising the amusing clips with a negative ER goal decreased self-reported amusement and zygomaticus reactivity and increased self-reported disgust and corrugator reactivity, decreasing positive and increasing negative emotional experience and expression. We conclude that positive and negative ER goals while reappraising amusing stimuli differentially engaged PA and NA systems: The positive ER goal engaged withdrawal of the expressive NA system, whereas the negative ER goal engaged reciprocal NA-PA system activation on experiential and expressive response channels.

Shades of Rage: Applying the Process Model of Emotion Regulation to Managing Anger After Brain Injury

Uncontrollable anger is common following an acquired brain injury (ABI), with impaired emotion regulation (ER) being one of the main contributors. Existing psychological interventions appear moderately effective, though studies typically include limitations such as small sample sizes, issues of long-term efficacy, and standardization of content. While ER has been a popular research field, the study of ER for anger management after ABI is less well investigated, and contains few interventions based on the widely used Process Model of ER. This review surveys the efficacy of ER strategies in individuals with ABI, and proposes a novel research design for future interventions. Recommendations are made about: strategy number and type, shared decision-making, approaches to data analysis, and mode of delivery.

Electrophysiological Evidence of Impaired Cognitive Reappraisal in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: An Event-related Potential Study

BACKGROUND

Emotion dysregulation symptoms are associated with higher conversion rates from MCI to dementia. Thus, understanding the neural mechanism underlying emotion regulation in people with MCI could provide useful information in early detection and intervention of MCI. This study investigated cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy, in people with MCI using event-related potentials analysis.

METHODS

Late positive potential (LPP) was measured in 46 amnestic MCI subjects and 47 healthy elderly controls (HECs) as they viewed neutral and unpleasant images. All participants viewed a brief description of the upcoming image; neutral images were neutrally described (the Neut condition), and negative images were preceded with either more neutral/positive (the Rea condition) or more negative (the Neg condition) interpretations.

RESULTS

MCI subjects reduced their emotional intensity to a smaller extent than HEC subjects. For MCI subjects, the decreased level of emotional intensity was positively correlated with function in the verbal and executive domains. The reduced intensity (Rea - Neg) was also inversely correlated with the LPP difference (Rea - Neg) 3,600-5,000 ms after stimulus onset. Compared with HEC subjects, MCI subjects showed hypoactivation in the cuneus in the N2 time range (240-310 ms) and in the inferior parietal lobule and supramarginal gyrus in the 3,600-5,000 ms range.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that MCI subjects failed to maintain the reappraisal of negative stimuli in the late time window, which contributed to a smaller success with reappraisal.

The age-Related Positivity Effect and Emotion Regulation: Assessing Downstream Affective Outcomes

While substantial literature suggests that positive preferences are in the service of emotion regulation pursuits, little evidence has directly linked positivity "processes" with well-being "outcomes." The current study examined age-related differences in negative gaze preferences and how such preferences are related to subsequent regulatory outcomes. Participants were 79 older adults and 72 younger adults. They first provided a baseline mood assessment, which was followed by a standardized emotional video clip for three minutes during which visual fixation preferences were recorded via an eye tracker. Mood was again assessed after the film, which was followed by a standardized video recovery task, and completion of a recovery mood measure. Older adults fixated less on negative portions of the emotional video clip relative to younger adults, indicative of an age-related positivity effect. The indirect effect of age on mood recovery through fixation was not supported.

The Influence of L2 Proficiency on Bilinguals' Creativity: The Key Role of Adaptive Emotion Regulation Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought severe impact on language learners' emotional states and their performance in creativity. Yet, their ability to regulate emotions is crucial for everyday functioning during times of crisis. The question of how adaptive emotion regulation (ER) strategies, which help an individual maintain appropriate and stable mood states, might affect bilinguals' creativity remains unexplored. The present study investigated this issue by measuring various indicators of the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, L2 proficiency, adaptive ER strategies, and bilinguals' cognitive creativity (CC) and emotional creativity (EC) during the pandemic. Results from a sample of 235 bilingual participants who completed a battery of survey instruments showed that: (1) bilinguals' negative mood significantly increased during the pandemic compared with their mood state before the pandemic; (2) their negative mood during the pandemic was positively associated with their adaptive ER strategies; (3) L2 proficiency had a direct effect on bilinguals' cognitive flexibility, CC, and EC; (4) L2 proficiency also indirectly influenced bilinguals' CC through cognitive flexibility. These results suggest that cognitive flexibility had a simple mediation effect on the association between L2 proficiency and CC. However, the current study further found that bilinguals had different cognitive patterns in EC. L2 proficiency influenced bilinguals' EC through cognitive flexibility indirectly only when adaptive ER strategies had a moderation effect on the association between cognitive flexibility and EC. However, this moderated mediation effect was not significant in CC. The current study implies that bilinguals' adaptive ER strategies played a distinct role in bilinguals' EC during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Age-related differences in how negative emotions influence arithmetic performance

In this study, we investigated the role of negative emotions on arithmetic and whether this role changes with aging during adulthood. Young and older adults were asked to verify one-digit addition problems (Experiment 1) and to estimate the results of two-digit multiplication problems (Experiment 2). In both experiments, easier and harder problems were displayed superimposed on emotionally neutral (e.g. mushrooms) or emotionally negative (e.g. a corpse) pictures. In both simple and complex arithmetic, young and older adults obtained poorer arithmetic performance under negative emotion conditions, especially while solving harder problems. Most interesting, deleterious effects of negative emotions on arithmetic performance were larger in young than in older adults. These findings have important implications for further our understanding of the role of negative emotions in the domain of arithmetic and age-related differences in this role.

Sadness regulation strategies and measurement: A scoping review

BACKGROUNDS

Accurate measurement and suitable strategies facilitate people regulate their sadness in an effective manner. Regulating or mitigating negative emotions, particularly sadness, is crucial mainly because constant negative emotions may lead to psychological disorders, such as depression and anxiety. This paper presents an overview of sadness regulation strategies and related measurement.

METHOD

Upon adhering to five-step scoping review, this study combed through articles that looked into sadness regulation retrieved from eight databases.

RESULTS

As a result of reviewing 40 selected articles, 110 strategies were identified to regulate emotions, particularly sadness. Some of the most commonly reported strategies include expressive suppression, cognitive reappraisal, distraction, seeking social or emotional support, and rumination. The four types of measures emerged from the review are self-reported, informant report (parents or peers), open-ended questions, and emotion regulation instructions. Notably, most studies had tested psychometric properties using Cronbach's alpha alone, while only a handful had assessed validity (construct and factorial validity) and reliability (Cronbach's alpha or test-retest) based on responses captured from questionnaire survey.

CONCLUSION

Several sadness regulation strategies appeared to vary based on gender, age, and use of strategy. Despite the general measurement of emotion regulation, only one measure was developed to measure sadness regulation exclusively for children. Future studies may develop a comprehensive battery of measures to assess sadness regulation using multi-component method.

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 12 May 2020. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4878591.v1.

Emotion regulation and peripheral psychophysiological correlates in the management of induced pain: A systematic review

Cognitive reappraisal and acceptance strategies have been shown to be effective in reducing pain experience and increasing pain tolerance. However, no systematic reviews have focused on the relationship between the use of these two strategies and peripheral physiological correlates when pain is experimentally induced. This systematic review aims to summarize the existing literature that explores the relationship between emotion regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and acceptance) and peripheral correlates of the autonomic nervous system and facial electromyography, such as affect-modulated responses and corrugator activity, on laboratory tasks where pain is induced. The systematic review identifies nine experimental studies that meet our inclusion criteria, none of which compare these strategies. Although cognitive reappraisal and acceptance strategies appear to be associated with decreased psychological responses, mixed results were found for the effects of the use of both strategies on all the physiological correlates. These inconsistencies between the studies might be explained by the high methodological heterogeneity in the task designs, as well as a lack of consistency between the instructions used in the different studies for cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, and the control conditions.

Electrophysiological Studies of Cognitive Reappraisal Success and Failure in aMCI

BACKGROUND

Although successful reappraisal relies on cognitive resources, how cognitive impairment affects brain processes related to cognitive reappraisal is not yet clear.

METHODS

Forty-four amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) subjects and 72 healthy elderly controls (HECs) were divided into the MCI-Failure (n = 23), MCI-Success (n = 21), HEC-Failure (n = 26), and HEC-Success (n = 46) groups according to changes in self-reported affect using reappraisal. All participants viewed 30 negative and 30 neutral images preceded by straightforward descriptions of these images and 30 negative images preceded by more neutral descriptions.

RESULTS

Reappraisal failure was found to be more common in people with MCI. Reappraisal failure is associated with altered neurophysiological indices of negative-reappraisal stimuli processing that are reflected in smaller theta responsivity to negative-reappraisal stimuli between 350-550 ms. The MCI-Success group showed enhanced LPP for negative-reappraisal stimuli from 1200 to 3500 ms, reflecting compensatory effort to complete the reappraisal task, while subjects in other groups showed reduced LPP for negative-reappraisal stimuli from 550 to 1200 ms.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings deepen our understanding of how cognitive decline impacts reappraisal and informs early diagnosis and interventions for MCI.

Expressive suppression versus cognitive reappraisal: Effects on self-report and peripheral psychophysiology

Effectiveness of various emotion regulation (ER) strategies have received much attention in recent research. Among the most studied ER strategies are cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. However, the evidence of their effectiveness is controversial and depends on the measures used. The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression strategies of ER via different measures such as self-report, facial expressions (zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii electromyography), and physiological assessment (skin conductance response and heart rate deceleration). Participants were presented with intensely unpleasant or neutral pictures and performed ER tasks. We expected that the implementation of ER strategies would reduce negative emotions, and cognitive reappraisal would produce greater reduction in negative emotions compared to expressive suppression. Self-report data showed that reappraisal had a greater effect on the reduction of negative emotions compared to suppression. There was no difference between reappraisal and suppression assessed with skin conductance response and electromyography. Curiously, heart rate deceleration increased while participants tried to suppress their emotional expressions, which could reflect efforts exerted in the attempt to suppress. The ER strategies reduced negative emotions during the presentation of unpleasant pictures partially in skin conductance response and heart rate deceleration. Overall, reappraisal is more effective in changing subjective experience, whereas the physiological reactions do not differ substantially between the two ER strategies explored. We therefore recommend that the assessment of ER strategies in the laboratory should accommodate more than one type of measures to come to more reliable conclusions.

Evolution and impact of self-efficacy during French COVID-19 confinement: a longitudinal study

Based on social cognitive theory, we propose that self-efficacy is a personal resource that protects people from the impact of confinement in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a longitudinal study where 197 French citizens were surveyed over 8 weeks of confinement (though only 25 participants responded each of these 8 weeks), we examined the relationships between general self-efficacy and positive affect, negative affect and adaptive performance at work. Consistent with theoretical expectations, self-efficacy was relatively stable during confinement and was positively related to positive affect and negatively related to negative affect. Self-efficacy was also positively correlated with all dimensions of adaptive performance at work during confinement. The role of self-efficacy as a protective factor against depressive risks induced by the stressful COVID-19 pandemic is discussed.

Greater negative affect and mixed emotions during spontaneous reactions to sad films in older than younger adults

Older adults may be better able to regulate emotion responses to negative experiences than younger persons when provided instructions, but age group differences in spontaneous emotion responses are poorly understood. The current study determined age group differences in spontaneous reactivity and recovery in negative and positive affects, as well as the co-occurrence of negative and positive affects, following a laboratory mood induction. Younger (n = 71) and older adults (n = 44) rated negative and positive affects before and several times after a negative mood induction involving sad film clips. ANCOVA and multilevel longitudinal modeling in HLM were utilized to determine age group differences in spontaneous reactivity to and recovery from the mood induction, as well as age group differences in co-occurrence of negative and positive affects. Relative to younger adults, older adults reported greater negative affect reactivity to and recovery from the mood induction. Older adults also reported greater co-occurrence of negative and positive affects in response to the mood induction, as compared to younger adults. Thus, older adults reacted more strongly to sad film clips than younger persons, exhibited efficient recovery, and reported greater co-occurrence of negative and positive affects. A fruitful line of future research might determine whether affect co-occurrence facilitates effective emotion regulation.

Age Differences in Reappraisal of Negative Autobiographical Memories

Background: Past studies have been equivocal regarding age differences in reappraisal efficacy. Moreover, the use of laboratory-generated stimuli (e.g., images, film clips) may overestimate age differences. Instead, the use of self-relevant stimuli (e.g., autobiographical memory) may better represent the day-to-day implementation of reappraisal. Method: Younger and older adults generated 50 negative memories and provided negativity, positivity, and vividness ratings. One to two weeks later, participants underwent a reappraisal task during which physiological data were collected. Participants implemented one of the three instructions for 30 seconds: remember naturally, increase negative reactions, or decrease negative reactions via a "positivizing" tactic. Results: Prior to the regulation session, older adults rated all memories more positively than younger adults. No age differences in negativity or vividness ratings emerged. After regulation, older adults rated memories more positively, negatively, and vividly than younger adults. Physiological data suggest that reappraisal demands may have been more cognitively demanding for older adults. However, older adults reported higher negativity and positivity than younger adults. Conclusion: This challenges the existing theory regarding age and emotion regulation. We contend that reappraisal was achieved by younger and older adults; however, achievement may have emerged in slightly different ways.

Improving emotion regulation of social exclusion in depression-prone individuals: a tDCS study targeting right VLPFC

BACKGROUND

Growing evidence has indicated that right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC) is critical in down-regulating emotional responses to social exclusion, and that depression is accompanied by social emotional dysregulation associated with reduced lateral prefrontal engagement. This study used anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to examine whether stimulating RVLPFC could improve emotional down-regulation of social exclusion in individuals with high depressive mood (DM).

METHODS

A total of 96 high and 94 low DM individuals received active or sham tDCS while viewing social exclusion or individual negative pictures under no-reappraisal (passive viewing) and reappraisal conditions. Participants rate their negative emotional experience following the presentation of each image. Pupil diameter and visual fixation duration were also recorded during the task.

RESULTS

It was found that tDCS-activated RVLPFC induced a stronger regulation effect on social exclusion than individual negative emotions. The effect of tDCS on regulation of social exclusion was more pronounced in low v. high DM individuals.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings demonstrate the specific role of RVLPFC on social emotion regulation, which has implications for refining target areas for the treatment of social emotion dysregulation in depression. However the findings do not suggest that high DM individuals benefit from a single-tDCS session on the emotion regulation of social exclusion. Thus we suggest to use multiple tDCS sessions or transcranial magnetic stimulation to further explore the therapeutic proposal in the future.

Positivity in Younger and in Older Age: Associations With Future Time Perspective and Socioemotional Functioning

Aging has been associated with a motivational shift to positive over negative information (i.e., positivity effect), which is often explained by a limited future time perspective (FTP) within the framework of socioemotional selectivity theory (SST). However, whether a limited FTP functions similarly in younger and older adults, and whether inter-individual differences in socioemotional functioning are similarly associated with preference for positive information (i.e., positivity) is still not clear. We investigated younger (20–35 years, N = 73) and older (60–75 years, N = 56) adults’ gaze preferences on pairs of happy, angry, sad, and neutral faces using an eye-tracking system. We additionally assessed several parameters potentially underlying inter-individual differences in emotion processing such as FTP, stress, cognitive functioning, social support, emotion regulation, and well-being. While we found no age-related differences in positivity when the entire trial duration was considered, older adults showed longer fixations on the more positive face in later stages of processing (i.e., positivity shifts). This allocation of resources toward more positive stimuli might serve an emotion regulatory purpose and seems consistent with the SST. However, our findings suggest that age moderates the relationship between FTP and positivity shifts, such that the relationship between FTP and positivity preferences was negative in older, and positive in younger adults, potentially stemming from an age-related differential meaning of the FTP construct across age. Furthermore, our exploratory analyses showed that along with the age and FTP interaction, lower levels of worry also played a significant role in positivity shifts. We conclude that positivity effects cannot be solely explained by aging, or the associated reduced FTP per se, but is rather determined by a complex interplay of psychosocial and emotional features.

Effectiveness of the level of personal relevance of visual autobiographical stimuli in the induction of positive emotions in young and older adults: pilot study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

The ability to retrieve specific memories is a cognitive and emotional protective factor. Among the most effective techniques to generate autobiographical memories is the use of audio-visual stimuli, particularly images. Developing and improving techniques that facilitate the generation of such memories could be highly effective in the prevention of depressive symptoms, especially in the elderly population. The aim of the present study is to examine how the level of personal relevance of pictures as autobiographical memory cues to induce positive emotions may affect an individual's emotion regulation.

METHODS

The participants, 120 older adults aged 65 and over and 120 young adults aged between 18 and 35, of both sexes and without depressive symptoms, will be induced to a negative mood state by means of viewing a film clip. Following the negative mood induction, the participants will be shown positive images according to experimental group to which they were randomly assigned (high personal relevance: personal autobiographical photographs; medium personal relevance: pictures of favourite locations associated with specific positive autobiographical memories; and low personal relevance: positive images from the International Affective Picture System). We will analyse the differences in subjective (responses to questionnaires) and objectives measures (EEG signal, heart rate variability and electrodermal activity) between the groups before and after the induction of negative affect and following the recall of positive memories.

DISCUSSION

The use of images associated with specific positive autobiographical memories may be an effective input for inducing positive mood states, which has potentially important implications for their use as a cognitive behavioural technique to treat emotional disorders, such as depression, which are highly prevalent among older adults.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04251104 . Registered on 30 January 2020.

Positive and Detached Reappraisal of Threatening Music in Younger and Older Adults

Past empirical studies have suggested that older adults preferentially use gaze-based mood regulation to lessen their negative experiences while watching an emotional scene. This preference for a low cognitively demanding regulatory strategy leaves open the question of whether the effortful processing of a more cognitively demanding reappraisal task is really spared from the general age-related decline. Because it does not allow perceptual attention to be redirected away from the emotional source, music provides an ideal way to address this question. The goal of our study was to examine the affective, behavioral, physiological, and cognitive outcomes of positive and detached reappraisal in response to negative musical emotion in younger and older adults. Participants first simply listened to a series of threatening musical excerpts and were then instructed to either positively reappraise or to detach themselves from the emotion elicited by music. Findings showed that, when instructed to simply listen to threatening music, older adults reported a more positive feeling associated with a smaller SCL in comparison with their younger counterparts. When implementing positive and detached reappraisal, participants showed more positive and more aroused emotional experiences, whatever the age group. We also found that the instruction to intentionally reappraise negative emotions results in a lesser cognitive cost for older adults in comparison with younger adults. Taken together, these data suggest that, compared to younger adults, older adults engage in spontaneous downregulation of negative affect and successfully implement downregulation instructions. This extends previous findings and brings compelling evidence that, even when auditory attention cannot be redirected away from the emotional source, older adults are still more effective at regulating emotions. Taking into account the age-associated decline in executive functioning, our results suggest that the working memory task could have distracted older adults from the reminiscences of the threat-evoking music, thus resulting in an emotional downregulation. Hence, even if they were instructed to implement reappraisal strategies, older adults might prefer distraction over engagement in reappraisal. This is congruent with the idea that, although getting older, people are more likely to be distracted from a negative source of emotion to maintain their well-being.

Psychophysiological Effects of Downregulating Negative Emotions: Insights From a Meta-Analysis of Healthy Adults

Assessing psychophysiological responses of emotion regulation is a cost-efficient way to quantify emotion regulation and to complement subjective report that may be biased. Previous studies have revealed inconsistent results complicating a sound interpretation of these findings. In the present study, we summarized the existing literature through a systematic search of articles. Meta-analyses were used to evaluate effect sizes of instructed downregulation strategies on common autonomic (electrodermal, respiratory, cardiovascular, and pupillometric) and electromyographic (corrugator activity, emotion-modulated startle) measures. Moderator analyses were conducted, with moderators including study design, emotion induction, control instruction and trial duration. We identified k = 78 studies each contributing multiple sub-samples and performed 23 meta-analyses for combinations of emotion regulation strategy and psychophysiological measure. Overall, results showed that effects of reappraisal and suppression on autonomic measures were highly inconsistent across studies with rather small mean effect sizes. Electromyography (startle and corrugator activity) showed medium effect sizes that were consistent across studies. Our findings highlight the diversity as well as the low level of standardization and comparability of research in this area. Significant moderation of effects by study design, trial duration, and control condition emphasizes the need for better standardization of methods. In addition, the small mean effect sizes resulting from our analyses on autonomic measures should be interpreted with caution. Findings corroborate the importance of multi-channel approaches.

The neuroscience of sadness: A multidisciplinary synthesis and collaborative review

Sadness is typically characterized by raised inner eyebrows, lowered corners of the mouth, reduced walking speed, and slumped posture. Ancient subcortical circuitry provides a neuroanatomical foundation, extending from dorsal periaqueductal grey to subgenual anterior cingulate, the latter of which is now a treatment target in disorders of sadness. Electrophysiological studies further emphasize a role for reduced left relative to right frontal asymmetry in sadness, underpinning interest in the transcranial stimulation of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as an antidepressant target. Neuroimaging studies - including meta-analyses - indicate that sadness is associated with reduced cortical activation, which may contribute to reduced parasympathetic inhibitory control over medullary cardioacceleratory circuits. Reduced cardiac control may - in part - contribute to epidemiological reports of reduced life expectancy in affective disorders, effects equivalent to heavy smoking. We suggest that the field may be moving toward a theoretical consensus, in which different models relating to basic emotion theory and psychological constructionism may be considered as complementary, working at different levels of the phylogenetic hierarchy.

Age similarities in matching pro- and contra-hedonic emotional strategies to everyday scenarios

Older adults are motivated to maximize positive affect in the present. Young adults will purposely feel negative and high arousal emotions in order to achieve a goal. However, this type of contra-hedonic emotional alignment has not been extensively studied with older adults. We expected older adults are less likely than young adults to select high arousal and negative emotions within specific scenarios where those states could be useful. In two studies, participants selected the emotion they preferred in hypothetical problems that varied on the arousal and valence best suited for goal achievement. Young and older adults were equally likely to endorse affective strategies that matched both pro and contra-hedonic scenarios. While older adults may be generally motivated to avoid negative and high-arousing emotions, they are just as likely as young adults to indicate that these states could be helpful in certain situations.

Age and emotion regulation in daily life: Frequency, strategies, tactics, and effectiveness

Models of aging and emotion hypothesize age differences in emotion regulation-in frequency, use of strategies, and/or effectiveness-but research to date has been mixed. In the current experience sampling study, younger, middle-aged, and older adults (N = 149), were prompted 5 times a day for 10 days to report on both general strategies (e.g., situation selection, cognitive change) and specific tactics. For each of the 5 strategies proposed by Gross's process model, tactics included those that introduced/increased positive aspects, avoided/decreased negative, and engaged with negative. Consistent with socioemotional selectivity theory, older adults reported less contra-hedonic motivation than younger, but this did not necessarily translate into age differences in regulation frequency or strategy use. Across the sample, strong preferences emerged for strategies intervening early in the emotional process and for tactics that introduced/increased positive aspects; a pattern that was even stronger in older adults. Middle-aged people more often avoided and reduced negative situations, whereas younger adults more often (though rarely) sought out or exacerbated negative situations. Effectiveness varied across strategies and tactics, but age differences only emerged for situation selection and reducing negative aspects of the situation (both less effective for older than younger adults). This research highlights the importance of studying how emotion regulation strategies are implemented in real life situations and suggests that age differences in emotion regulation, when they do emerge, may be more a matter of degree than of type. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Age Differences in Emotion Regulation and Facial Muscle Reactivity to Emotional Films

BACKGROUND

Age-related declines in many cognitive abilities are common in healthy aging. However, the ability to effectively regulate emotions is preserved, and possibly even enhanced, in late adulthood. This capacity has been examined most commonly in relation to low-intensity emotional stimuli that typically involve static pictures. Evidence is suggesting that older adults may become overwhelmed when exposed to emotional cues of heightened intensity.

OBJECTIVE

In the current study, we assessed whether older adults retain the ability to regulate emotions successfully when exposed to more emotionally evocative (e.g., dynamic) stimuli.

METHODS

Young and older adults were instructed to regulate, using expressive suppression, their outward behavioral expression of emotions while viewing dynamic stimuli involving amusing and sad films. Facial reactivity, as indexed using electromyography, self-rated emotional experience, and memory for the stimuli were assessed.

RESULTS

The results showed that, relative to young adults, older adults were unable to suppress zygomaticus (cheek) activity to amusing films or corrugator (brow) reactivity to sad films, which is likely due to their relatively reduced facial muscle reactivity. Expressive suppression did not affect young or older adults' subjective feelings or memory for the stimuli.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that there are age differences in facial muscle reactivity to amusing and sad cues of heightened intensity. These findings suggest that older adults' ability to effectively regulate emotions may be limited, at least with expressive suppression, in the context of high-intensity emotional cues. Further research is needed to investigate possible exceptions the preservation of emotion regulation in older adults.

Age-related decline in positive emotional reactivity and emotion regulation in a population-derived cohort

Human older age ushers in functional decline across the majority of cognitive domains. A notable exception seems to be affective processing, with older people reporting higher levels of emotional well-being. Here we evaluated age-related changes in emotional reactivity and regulation in a representative subsample (N = 104; age range: 23-88 years) of the population-derived Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience cohort. Performance on a film-based emotion reactivity and regulation task in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner showed an age-related decline in positive reactivity, alongside a similar decline in the capacity to down-regulate negative affect. Decreased positivity with age was associated with reduced activation in the middle frontal gyrus. These findings, from the largest neuroimaging investigation to-date, provide no support for age-related increases in positive emotional reactivity.

A Review of Psychophysiological Measures to Assess Cognitive States in Real-World Driving

As driving functions become increasingly automated, motorists run the risk of becoming cognitively removed from the driving process. Psychophysiological measures may provide added value not captured through behavioral or self-report measures alone. This paper provides a selective review of the psychophysiological measures that can be utilized to assess cognitive states in real-world driving environments. First, the importance of psychophysiological measures within the context of traffic safety is discussed. Next, the most commonly used physiology-based indices of cognitive states are considered as potential candidates relevant for driving research. These include: electroencephalography and event-related potentials, optical imaging, heart rate and heart rate variability, blood pressure, skin conductance, electromyography, thermal imaging, and pupillometry. For each of these measures, an overview is provided, followed by a discussion of the methods for measuring it in a driving context. Drawing from recent empirical driving and psychophysiology research, the relative strengths and limitations of each measure are discussed to highlight each measures' unique value. Challenges and recommendations for valid and reliable quantification from lab to (less predictable) real-world driving settings are considered. Finally, we discuss measures that may be better candidates for a near real-time assessment of motorists' cognitive states that can be utilized in applied settings outside the lab. This review synthesizes the literature on in-vehicle psychophysiological measures to advance the development of effective human-machine driving interfaces and driver support systems.

Automatic and Controlled Emotion Regulation in Aging: The Case of Expressive Suppression

Background/Study Context: To explain the high levels of well-being reported by older adults, socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that emotion regulation becomes more automated with age. Hence, the objective of the present study was to determine whether automatic emotion regulation becomes indeed more efficient with age, as controlled regulation becomes less efficient. We tested this hypothesis with regard to a specific emotion regulation strategy, expressive suppression, and a discrete emotion: disgust.

METHODS

Disgusting videos were presented to 74 young adults (mean (SD) age: 20.1 (1.8)) and 52 older adults (mean (SD) age: 73.6 (9.3)), randomly assigned to one of three conditions: the control condition, the implicit condition (assessing automatic suppression), and the explicit condition (assessing controlled suppression). The disgust expressed and the disgust felt were analyzed separately with factorial analyses of variance that included age group and regulation condition as between-subject variables.

RESULTS

Our results suggest that automatic and controlled expressive suppression may both be altered in healthy aging. Relative to young adults, older adults do not suppress their facial expressions as much but report feeling less disgust.

CONCLUSION

Expressive suppression may not become more automated with age. However, the older adults' ability to suppress facial expressions did not appear to be directly associated with the intensity of their emotions.

Age similarities and differences in spontaneous use of emotion regulation tactics across five laboratory tasks

Theories of emotional aging have proposed that age differences in emotion regulation may partly explain why older adults report high levels of emotional well-being despite declines in other domains. The current research examined age differences and similarities in emotion regulatory tactic preferences across 5 laboratory tasks designed to measure the strategies within the process model of emotion regulation (situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation). An adult life span sample (ages 20-78, N = 225) completed tasks offering opportunities to use tactics that decrease negative, increase positive, or engage with negative aspects of the situation. Overall, age similarity in tactic preferences (supported by Bayes factors) was much more common than age differences. Across the sample, participants favored avoiding negative aspects in situation selection and modification and seeking or introducing positive aspects in attentional deployment and cognitive change. Self-reports of affect suggest that older adults were more responsive to positive aspects of the situation, although they did not seek them out more than other age groups. These results cast some doubt on the assumption that spontaneous emotion regulation is more likely in older age, but rather show that both younger and older adults show similar preferences in the absence of other strong goals. This novel approach of examining strategies across the process model highlights benefits of comparing multiple tactics within strategies not only when examining possible age differences, but also when studying patterns of emotion regulation in general. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Age differences in emotion regulation effort: Pupil response distinguishes reappraisal and distraction for older but not younger adults

In previous research, older adults show greater emotional benefits from distracting themselves than from reappraising an event when strategically regulating emotion. Older adults also demonstrate an attentional preference to avoid, while younger adults show a bias toward approaching negative stimuli. This suggests a possible age-related differentiation of cognitive effort across approach and avoidance of negative stimuli during emotion regulation. In this study, we tracked cognitive effort via pupil dilation during the use of distraction (avoidance) and reappraisal (approach) strategies across age. Forty-eight younger adults (M = 20.94, SD = 1.78; 19 men) and 48 older adults (M = 68.82, SD = 5.40; 15 men) viewed a slideshow of negative images and were instructed to distract, reappraise, or passively view each image. Older adults showed greater pupil dilation during reappraisal than distraction, but younger adults displayed no difference between conditions-an effect that survived when controlling for gaze patterns. Gaze findings revealed that older adults looked less within images during active emotion regulation compared with passive viewing (no difference between distraction and reappraisal), and younger adults showed no difference across strategies. Younger adults gazed less within the most emotional image areas during distraction, but this did not significantly contribute to pupil response. Our findings support that distraction is less cognitively effortful than reinterpreting negative information in later life. These findings could be explained by older adults' motivational bias to disengage from negative information because of the age-related positivity effect, or compensation for decreased working memory resources across the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record

Systematic review and meta-analysis of age-related differences in instructed emotion regulation success

The process model of emotion regulation (ER) is based on stages in the emotion generative process at which regulation may occur. This meta-analysis examines age-related differences in the subjective, behavioral, and physiological outcomes of instructed ER strategies that may be initiated after an emotional event has occurred; attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation. Within-process strategy, stimulus type, and valence were also tested as potential moderators of the effect of age on ER. A systematic search of the literature identified 156 relevant comparisons from 11 studies. Few age-related differences were found. In our analysis of the subjective outcome of response modulation strategies, young adults used expressive enhancement successfully (g = 0.48), but not expressive suppression (g = 0.04). Response modulation strategies had a small positive effect among older adults, and enhancement vs suppression did not moderate this success (g = 0.31 and g = 0.10, respectively). Young adults effectively used response modulation to regulate subjective emotion in response to pictures (g = 0.41) but not films (g = 0.01). Older adults were able to regulate in response to both pictures (g = 0.26) and films (g = 0.11). Interestingly, both age groups effectively used detached reappraisal, but not positive reappraisal to regulate emotional behavior. We conclude that, in line with well-established theories of socioemotional aging, there is a lack of evidence for age differences in the effects of instructed ER strategies, with some moderators suggesting more consistent effectiveness for older compared to younger adults.

The influence of motivational priority on younger and older adults' positive gaze preferences

The present study investigated whether manipulating emotional goal priority within a series of divided attention tasks influenced the presence or absence of age-related positive gaze preferences. Across two experiments, participants viewed image pairs while performing an auditory version of a 3-back n-back task. In Experiment 1, four conditions were presented: full attention viewing, emotion regulation priority, n-back task priority, and equal priority. The same conditions were included for Experiment 2, with the addition of a "no priority" divided attention condition and full attention n-back condition. Both age groups demonstrated greater positive relative to negative preferences when emotion regulation goals were prioritized, in spite of the challenge presented by a secondary task in divided attention. The present findings are discussed in terms of how positive emotional processing preferences may emerge despite cognitive control constraints in old age. Implications for the role of explicit motivations for older adults' positivity preferences are discussed.

Profiles in emotional aging: does age matter?

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this research project was to define emotional profiles in elderly people and to analyze the presence of each one in different age groups (from 65 to 74, 75 to 84, 85 to 94 and 95 to 104).

METHOD

The sample group comprised 257 elderly people not suffering from cognitive impairment who were independent in the Basic and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living. The following emotional variables were analyzed: positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, loneliness, and regulation strategies.

RESULTS

Cluster analyses revealed three emotional profiles: 'dissatisfied' (elderly people with high levels of negative affect and loneliness who are unhappy with their lives and use problem solving to regulate their emotions), 'happy' (those with good levels of positive affect and life satisfaction, low levels of loneliness and negative affect and little use of passive strategies), and 'resilient' (those with low levels of positive and negative affect and medium levels of loneliness who are more or less satisfied with their lives and who use passive strategies to regulate their emotions). A relationship was observed between age and profile. Among the under 85s, the most common profile was 'happy', while among the over 85s, the most common profile was 'resilient.' The 'happy' profile was also observed in participants over the age of 85, although to a lesser extent. The prevalence of the 'dissatisfied' profile decreased with age.

CONCLUSION

These results highlight the fact that although age seems to be a key factor in determining profile, individual differences should not be overlooked, even among the oldest old.

Characterizing age-related positivity effects in situation selection

Situation selection-choosing to enter or avoid situations based on how they will likely make you feel-is theorized to be a useful emotion regulation strategy, especially in older age (Charles, 2010; Urry & Gross, 2010). However, research on the use of situation selection for emotion regulation is limited, and the existing findings about age differences are mixed, with some studies finding age differences and others not. We investigated whether there are overall age differences in the types of emotional situations people select by conducting a "mini" meta-analysis to synthesize all existing data from a situation selection paradigm used in our lab. We also explored potential moderators of age differences in situation selection, including properties of the stimuli options and information available to participants. We did not find overall age differences in the emotional situations younger and older adults select, though age differences are larger in contexts in which emotional information is more relevant or highly arousing.

The roles of age and attention in general emotion regulation, reappraisal, and expressive suppression

Life span emotional development theories propose age differences in emotion regulation tendencies and abilities. Research on age-related positivity has identified age differences in attention to emotional content, which may support emotion regulation in older age. The current research examines the roles of age and attention under various emotion regulation instructions. We measured younger (N = 92) and older (N = 88) adults' fixation to negative emotional content and continuously rated affect during normal viewing and instructions to regulate. Those instructed to regulate first did so generally, then using detached or positive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Older adults (OAs) fixated less than younger adults (YAs) in negative areas regardless of instructions, suggesting broad age-related attentional tendencies. In contrast to some previous research, between-subjects analyses showed no age differences in effects of either form of reappraisal or suppression on affect. Within-subject analyses showed specific regulation instructions predicted less negative affect than general instructions for both age groups. Attention was unrelated to affect for both YAs and OAs across instructions. In sum, this research presents pervasive attentional preferences away from negative material in OAs as well as evidence of successful reappraisal and suppression in both age groups. Looking patterns, however, seemed unrelated to emotion regulation instructions' effects on mood for either age group. Age differences in attentional patterns may therefore not translate into age differences in subsequent emotion regulation success. (PsycINFO Database Record

Thoughts after marital conflict and punch biopsy wounds: Age-graded pathways to healing

Thoughts and emotions following marital conflict have received little attention but almost certainly contribute to marriage's long-term health effects. Consistent with emotion theories of aging, we expected the effects of post-conflict thoughts on important neuroendocrine and immune outcomes, cortisol levels and full-thickness wound healing, to differ by age. An age-diverse sample of married couples received a punch biopsy wound and discussed a marital problem, then privately recorded their thoughts and rated their mood. Salivary cortisol was sampled throughout the day, and wound healing was measured for 32days. Older adults reported more positive mood post-conflict than younger adults. Thoughts with more positive emotional content related to lower subsequent cortisol levels. Only older adults who expressed more positive thoughts after conflict experienced faster wound healing, not younger adults. These findings point to the increased physiological importance of regulatory post-stressor processes in older age, and broaden our understanding of social-emotional age differences in close relationships. These data also stimulate questions of whether marriage has more widespread health consequences for older partners, undetected in studies of short-term outcomes.

Dispositional and Situational Emotion Regulation in Younger and Older Adults

Abstract. Younger and older adults (N = 207) viewed a film scene eliciting strong negative emotions and then indicated how they had regulated their emotions. Dispositional emotion regulation was measured prior to stimulus presentation. Older adults showed higher levels of dispositional suppression than younger adults. Furthermore, individual differences in dispositional expressive suppression were predictive of reappraisal and suppression in the given situation. However, dispositional suppression was more strongly related to situational suppression among older adults than among younger adults. Future directions concerning the importance of and possible implications for age differences in coping with stressful situations are discussed.