The many emotions across the adult life span, and how we

interpret them

Susan Charles, Ph.D.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

Aging

Strength

Situation SelectionSituation ModificationAttention DeploymentCognitive AppraisalsMemoryChange in perspective

Time left (SST)Time livedAwareness of Limitations

+

+

Emotional Well-Being (WB) 

 

WB before a negative event (overall well-being)

WB during and shortly after negative event

WB long after a Negative Event

+

Reduced Physiological Flexibility

+

Vulnerability

Prolonged HPA arousalDecreased cellular InhibitionIncreased blood pressure

+

+

SAVIStrength and Vulnerability Integration

Charles, 2010Luong & Charles, 2013

The relationship between respondents’ age and subjective well-being as a function of their country’s GDP, after controlling for other individual differences (gender, marital status,

employment status, subjective health, subjective income, social contact, and religiosity).

Hannah J. Swift et al. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2014;geronb.gbu011

© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Covariates only Including context Covariates only Including contextNA mean NA duration

0

1

2

~45 years old ~56 years old ~68 years old

Neg

ative

affe

ct

Negative AffectMean level; Maximum that day

Positive Affect

Covariates only Including context Covariates only Including contextPA mean PA duration

0

1

2

3

4

~45 years old ~56 years old ~68 years old

Positi

ve a

ffect

Which emotions?

• cheerful, in good spirits, extremely happy, calm and peaceful, satisfied, full of life, enthusiastic, attentive, proud, active, close to others, like you belong, and confident.

• feeling worthless, so sad nothing could cheer you up, nervous, restless or fidgety, hopeless, that everything was an effort, worthless, afraid, jittery, irritable, ashamed, upset, lonely, angry, and frustrated

Groups: ~42 years-old; ~58 years-old

(individual differences in emotional experience)

Angry/Anxious

Sadness

Positive Affect

.48

.58

-.49

-.50 -.39

-.35

Oldest Age Group - ~74 years-old(individual differences in emotional experience)

Angry/Anxious Sadness

Positive AffectLow Arousal

.44

.70

-.42-.31 -.30

-.21

Positive AffectHigh Arousal

Daily Architecture of Emotions:Negative Emotions

Daily Architecture of Emotions:Positive Emotions

Agentic Social

Cheerful Agentic/Social

Content

Cheerful

Relatively younger Adults (~42 years-old)

Middle age group (~58 years-old) and oldest (~74 years-old)

Emotions experienced when talking with: Close friends, family members, new friends

• Happy, pride, accomplished, amused, joy, contentment, interest, excited

• Fear, anger, sad, shame, irritable, frustrated, bored, anxiety, guilty, disgust, embarrassed

Accomplishment

CloseF Family NewFriend0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

YoungerOlder

Amused

Close F Family NewFriend0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

YoungerOlder

Irritable

CloseF Family NewFriend0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

YoungerOlder

In our investigative and interpretive journey…

• Positive more “mixed” than negative Negative more embedded in evolution Positive more embedded in culture

o How does this phenomenon “feel”?o When are they taking place? (context)o When are they useful?

• Focus on situations/environments

Thank you

• David Almeida, Ph.D.• Jennifer Piazza, Ph.D.• Laura Carstensen, Ph.D.• Jacqueline Mogle, Ph.D.• Gloria Luong, Ph.D.• Kate Leger• Emily Urban

• NIH/NIA: R01AG042431; P01 AG020166, R01 AG019239