emotion and aging

8/8/2019 Emotion and Aging

1/10

Psychology and Ag ing Copyright 1997 by the American Psychological Association, In1997, Vol. 12, No. 4, 590 -59 9 0882-7974/97/$3.00

Em otion and Aging" Exp er ience , E xpress ion, and Control

James J. Gross, Laura L. Carstensen,and Monisha Pasupathi

Stanford University

Jeanne TsaiUniversity of Cal ifornia, Berkeley

Carina G6testam SkorpenUniversity of Trondhe im

Angie Y. C. HsuStanford University

Age differences in emotional experience, expression, and control were investigated in 4 studies. Acommunity sample of 127 African Americans and European Americans (ages 19-96 years) wasused in Study 1; a community sample of 82 Chinese Americans and European Americans (ages 20-85 years) was used in Study 2; a community sample of 49 Norwegians drawn from 2 age groups(ages 20-35 years and 70+ years) was used in Study 3; and a sample of 1,080 American nuns(ages 24-101 years) was used in Study 4. Across studies, a consistent pattern of age differencesemerged. Compared with younger participants, older participants reported fewer negative emotionalexperiences and greater emotional control. Findings regarding emotional expressivity were lessconsistent, but when there were age differences, older participants reported lesser expressivity. Resultsare interpreted in terms of increasingly competent emotion regulation across the life span.

Popular stereotypes suggest that people become less emo-tional as they age: Out of the exubera nce of abunda nt emotionalenergy in early adulthood develops the moderation of coolerrationality in middle adulthood and older age (Bromley, 1990;Cummi ng & Henry, 1961 ). Pervasive as this stereotype is, rela-tively little empirical attention has been paid to developmentaltrends in the domain of emotion beyond late childhood (Thomp-son, 1990).

There are, however, a nu mber of signs that a life span analysi sof emotion may be fruitful. Among emotion researchers, forexample, there is widespread agreement that emotional experi-ence is inextricably intertwined with cognitive appraisals ofsituations (Folkman, Lazarus, Pimley, & Novacek, 1987; Laza-rus, 1991; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and motivations to realizeparticular goals (Stein & Levine, 1987; Stein & Trabasso,1990). Among life span developmentalists, there is growingconsensus that there are age differences in the types of cognitiveappraisals people make (Blanchard-Fields, 1986; Blanchard-Field s, Camp, & Casper-Jahnke, 1995) and the relative salie nce

James J. Gross, Laura L. Carstensen, Monisha Pasupathi, and AngieY. C. Hsu, Department of Psychology, Stanford University; Jeanne Tsai,Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley; CarinaG6testam Skorpen, Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioural Medi-cine, University of Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway.

This research was supported by Grant MH53859 from National Insti-tute of Mental Health, National Institute of Aging Grant RO1-8816, andthe Gordon and Dailey Pattee Endowed Faculty Fellowship (StanfordUniversity).

Correspondence concerning his article should be addressed to JamesJ. Gross, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, Cali-fornia 94305-2130. Electronic mail may be sent via Internet to james @psych.stanford.edu.

of particular motives (Carstensen, 1993). In addition, age differ-ences have been uncovered in both the salience (Carstensen &Turk-Charles, 1994) and the understandi ng of emotion (L abou-vie -Vie f & DeVoe, 1991; Labouvie-Vief , DeVoe, & Bulka,1989; Labouvie-Vief, Hakim-Larson, DeVoe, & Schoeberlein,1989).

All told, these findings suggest that the second half of lifemay well involve changes in the d omain of emotion. Neverthe-less, little research has directly addressed emotion and emotionregulat ion in adulthood and older age. I n the present article, wereport findings from four studies in which participants wereasked about three domains o f potential change in emotion: emo-tional experience, emotiona l expression, and emotional control.

Emotional Experience

Studies that have examined emotional experience and agegenerally suggest that there are decreases in the frequency andintensity of self-reported emotional experience with age. In onestudy, Diener and associates administered a short form of theAffect Intensity Measure (AIM), which assesses the intensity

of positive and negative affect, and five items from the GeneralBehavioral Inventory (GBI), which tap symptoms of mooddisturbance, to a predominant ly White sample of participa ntsranging in age from 16 to 68 years (Diener, Sandvik, & Larsen,1985). Across this sample, age correlated -.26 with the AIMand -.32 with the GBI items, indicating an age-related declinein emotional experi ence for both positive and negative emotions.In a second study, Lawton an d colleagues used a large commu-nity sample of three age groups, includi ng younger (ages 1 8-29), middle-aged (ages 30-59), and older (ages 60+) partici-pants, and reported age-related decreases in emotional intensity(Lawton, Kleban, Rajagopal, & Dean, 1992) . Older participants

590


2/10

EMOTION AND AGING 591

w e r e m o r e l i k e l y t h a n m i d d l e - a g e d a n d y o u n g e r p a r ti c i p a n ts t oe n d o r s e it e m s s u c h a s " O t h e r s t e n d t o g e t m o r e e x c i t e d a b o u tt h i n g s t h a n I d o " a n d " M y n e g a t iv e m o o d s a r e p r e t ty m i l d "(Law ton e t a l . , 1992 , p . 174) . B ar r i ck and co l l eagues a l so foundage- re l a t ed dec reases in em ot iona l in t ens i ty, bu t on ly fo r nega -t ive a ffec t (Bar r i ck , Hu tch inson , & Decker s , 1989) . In the i r

c o m m u n i t y s a m p l e o f y o u n g e r ( a g e s 1 8 - 2 5 ) a n d o l d e r ( a g e s60+ , ) p a r t i c ipan t s , t hey found tha t s e l f - r epor t ed inc idence andin tens i ty o f nega t ive a ffec t were lower in the o lde r pa r t i c ipan t sthan in the younger pa r t i c ipan t s bu t tha t t he re were no aged i ff e rences fo r pos i t ive a ffec t.

Two l abora to ry s tud ies in wh ich pa r t i c ipan t s were a sked toca l l t o mind in t ense emot iona l expe r i ences f a i l ed to f ind age -re l a t ed d i ff e rences in emot iona l expe r i ence . In a s tudy o f 10w o m e n i n e ac h o f t h r e e a g e g r o u p s ( a g e s 2 4 - 4 0 , a g e s 4 5 - 6 0 ,a n d a g e s 6 5 - 8 0 ) , M a l a t e s t a a n d c o l le a g u e s fo u n d n o e v i d e n c efo r age d i ff e rences in the in t ens i ty wi th which th ree nega t iveemo t ions were r e l ived under in s t ruc t ions to do so (M ala te s t a ,I za rd , Cu lve r, & Nico l i ch , 1987) . S imi la r ly, i n a l abora to rys t u d y o f o l d e r p a r t i c ip a n t s (a g e s 7 1 - 8 3 y e a r s ) , L e v e n s o n a n d

co l l eagues obse rved no d i ff e rences be tween these pa r t i c ipan t sand younger pa r t i c ipan t s they had s tud ied p rev ious ly in the in -t ens i ty o f se l f - r epor t ed emo t iona l expe r i ence dur ing a t a sk inw h i c h p a r t ic i p a n t s r e c a ll e d a n i n t e n s e e m o t i o n a l e p i s o d e ( L e v -enson , Car s t ensen , F r i e sen , & Ek man , 1991 ) .

These s tud ies sugges t t ha t a d i s t inc t ion be made be tween thecapac i ty to expe r i ence emot ion and the typ ica l l eve l o f expe r i -enced em ot ion . A l thoug h the re is appa ren t ly no age - re l a t ed d i f -f e rence in the ab i l i t y to r eca l l in t ense em ot iona l ep i sod es oncom man d , in the ebb and f low o f eve ryday l i f e, o lde r pa r t i c ipan t sgene ra l ly r epor t f ee l ing l e s s in t ense and l e s s f r equen t emo t ions .In t e rms o f the gen e ra l i zab i l i t y o f these f ind ings , i t appea r s tha tage d i ff e rences may be mo re r e l i ab le fo r nega t ive than fo r pos i -t ive emot ions .

E m o t i o n a l E x p r e s s i v i ty

A g e - r e l a t e d c h a n g e s i n e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i en c e m a y o r m a y n o tl ead to changes in emo t ion-express ive behav io r, and y e t i t i s theemo t ion-express iv e beha v io r tha t may be o f g rea te s t s ign i f i cancein shap ing soc ia l i n t e rac t ion . I s t he re a l so ev idence fo r age -re l a t ed changes in emo t iona l express iv i ty ? Resea rche r s haveused se l f - r epor t s measures and beh av io ra l obse rva t ions to a s sesswhe the r em ot ion-ex press ive behav io r, l i ke sub jec t ive exper i -ence , dec reases ove r the l i f e span .

The se l f - r epor t f ind ings on th i s i s sue have been mixed . Law -ton and co l l eag ues found tha t o lde r pa r t i c ipan t s were mo re l ike lythan midd le -aged o r younger pa r t i c ipan t s to endorse the s t a t e -m e n t " I s e l d o m c r y " a s w e l l a s t h e st a te m e n t " W h e t h e r I ' mh a p p y o r s a d i n s id e , I l o o k p r e tt y m u c h t h e s a m e " ( L a w t o n e ta l . , 1992 , p . 175) . B y con t ra s t , Ma la te s t a and Ka ln ok (198 4)d id no t f ind age d i ff e rences on an inh ib i t ion o f emot ion f ac to rcons i s t ing o f two gen e ra l i tems con ce rn ing the l ike l ihood o f" s a y i n g w h a t o n e f e e l s " a n d " a c t i n g o u t o n e ' s f e e l i n g s i nb e h a v i o r " ( p . 3 0 3 ) , a l t h o u g h t h e s e i t e m s m i g h t b e c o n s i d e r e dm u c h b r o a d e r t h an e m o t i o n a l e x p r e s s i v it y p e r s e ( G r o s s & J o h n ,1997, in pre ss) .

B e h a v i o r a l e v i d e n c e r e g a r d i n g a g e - r e l a t e d ch a n g e s i n e m o -t iona l express iv i ty has a l so been m ixed . Mala te s t a e t a l. (198 7)

found no ma in e ffec t fo r age in the r a t ing accuracy o f pa r t i c i -pan t s ' emot iona l f ac i a l express ions gene ra ted when they in t en -t iona l ly r eca l l ed an in t ense emot ion a l ep i sode . S im i la r ly, Leven-son and co l l eagues found no ev idence fo r d i ff e rences in expres -s iv i ty be tween youn ger and o lde r pa r t i c ipan t s du r ing a r e l ivedemo t ions t a sk : The pe rcen tage o f t r i a l s du r ing w hich pa r t i c ipan t s

s h o w e d s p o n t a n e o u s e x p r e s s iv e b e h a v i o r d i d n o t d i f f er b y a g e(Leven son e t a l. , 1991 ) . How ever, u s ing a l abora to ry pa rad igmin which spouses in t e rac t w i th each o the r, Car s t ensen and co l -l e a g u e s f o u n d t h at c o m p a r e d w i t h m i d d l e - a g e d c o u p l e s ( m e a na g e = 4 4 y e a r s ) , o l d e r c o u p l e s ( m e a n a g e = 6 3 y e a r s ) s h o w e dless in t e res t , humor, ange r, d i sgus t , be l l ige rence , and whin ingthan o lde r coup les du r ing a conver sa t ion abou t a conf l i c t i nthe i r r e l a t ionsh ip (Cars t ensen , Go t tman , & Levenso n , 1 995) .In t e res ting ly, du r ing these same co nver sa t ions , t hey found tha to l d e r c o u p l e s s h o w e d g r e a t e r a f f e c t i o n t h a n d i d m i d d l e - a g e dcoup les , wh ich sugges t s tha t some pos i t ive emo t ions may bee x e m p t e d f r o m t h e g e n e r a l a g e -r e l a te d d e c l i n e i n e m o t i o n a lexpress iv i ty.

As wi th the s tud ies o f emot iona l expe r i ence , t hese s tud ies

p rov ide no ev idence fo r d i ff e rences in the capac i ty o f o lde rpa r t i c ipan t s to r eca l l i n t ense emot ions and the i r concomi tan temo t ion-express ive behav io r. However, bo th in se l f - r epor t s o fe v e r y d a y e m o t i o n a l e x p r e s s i v i ty a n d i n a l a b o r a t o r y p a r a d i g mw i t h h i g h e c o l o g i c a l v a l i d i t y - - d i s c u s s i n g a p r o b l e m w i t h as p o u s e - - e v i d e n c e f o r d e c r e a s e d e m o t i o n - ex p r e s s i v e b e h a v i o rwas ob ta ined . L ike the sub jec t ive exper i ence f ind ings , t hese r e -su l t s po in t t o the po ss ib i l i t y tha t age - re l a t ed dec l ines in emo -t iona l express iv i ty may be l imi t ed p r im ar i ly to nega t ive a s op -posed to pos i t ive emot ions .

E m o t i o n a l C o n t r o l

U s u a l ly, p e o p l e d o n o t s t a n d b y i d l y a s e m o t i o n s c o m e a n dgo . Ins t ead , peop le a t t empt to in f luence which emot ions theyhave , when they have them, and how these emot ions a re expe r i -e n c e d o r e x p r e s se d ( G r o s s & L e v e n s o n , 1 9 9 7 ) . G i v e n h o wimpor tan t such a t t empts a t emot ion r egu la t ion a re fo r psycho-log ica l hea l th (Gross & Muf ioz , 1995 ) , i t is e s sen t ia l to con s ide rwhe the r age - re l a t ed changes in emot iona l expe r i ence and ex -p ress ion a re a s so c ia t ed wi th pa ra l l e l age - re l a t ed changes in emo-t iona l con t ro l .

A g e - r e l a t e d c h an g e s i n t h e b r o a d e r d o m a i n o f c o p i n g a n ddefens ive p rocesses have been desc r ibed p rev ious ly ( e .g . , A ld -win , 1991 ; Labouv ie -Vie f , Hak im-L arson , & Hobar t , 1987;M c C r a e , 1 9 8 2 ) , b u t t o t h e b e st o f o u r k n o w l e d g e , o n l y t w os tud ies have d i r ec t ly s tud ied age - re l a t ed changes in em ot iona l

con t ro l . In con t ra s t t o the age - re l a t ed dec l ines ev iden t in em o-t iona l expe r i ence and express ion , t he s ing le s tudy in wh ich aged i ff e rences were ev iden t sugges t s inc reased emot iona l con t ro lwi th age . In th i s s tudy, Lawton e t a l . (1992) found tha t com-p a r e d w i t h y o u n g e r a n d m i d d l e - a g e d p a r t i c ip a n t s , o l d e r p a r ti c i -pan t s were m ore l ike ly to ag ree wi th the fo l lowing i tems : " It ry ha rd to s t ay in a neu t ra l s t a t e and to avo id emot iona l s i tua -t ion s" and " I t ry to avo id r eac t ing emot iona l ly, whe the r theemo t ion i s pos i t ive o r nega t ive" (Law ton e t a l ., 1992, p . 175) ,bo th o f wh ich sug ges t i nc reased emot iona l con t ro l in o lde r age .L a b o u v i e - Vi e f an d c o l l e a g u e s in t e r v i ew e d 1 2 p r e a d o l es c e n t( 1 0 - 1 4 y e a r s ), a d o le s ce n t ( 1 5 - 1 8 y e a r s ), y o u n g ad u l t ( 1 9 -


3/10

59 2 GROSS ET AL.

2 9 y e a r s ), a d u l t ( 3 0 - 4 5 y e a r s ) , m i d d l e -a g e d a d u l t ( 4 6 - 5 9y e a r s ) , a n d o l d e r a d u l t ( 6 0 - 7 7 y e a r s ) p a r t i c i p a n t s a b o u t t h e i re x p e r i e n c e s o f a n g e r, s a d n e s s , f e a r , a n d h a p p i n e s s ( L a b o u v i e -Vi e f , H a k i m - L a r s o n , e t a l. , 1 9 8 9 ) . D u r i n g t h e i n t e r v i ew s ,p r o b e s w e r e u s e d t o a s s e s s h o w p a r t i c i p a n t s e x p e r i e n c e d a n dc o n t r o l l e d e a c h e m o t i o n , a n d t r a n s c r i p t s w e r e l a t e r c o d e d a ss h o w i n g o n e o f f o u r l e v e l s o f e x p e r i e n c e a n d m o d u l a t i o n . N oa g e - r e l a t e d i n c r e a s e s i n r a t i n g s o f m o d u l a t i o n e m e rg e d a m o n gt h e f o u r a d u l t g r o u p s .

O f t h e t h r e e d o m a i n s i n w h i c h a g e - r e l a te d c h a n g e s h a v e b e e nd o c u m e n t e d , e m o t i o n a l c o n t r o l i s l e a s t w e l l s t u d i e d . T h e r e i ss o m e e v i d e n c e , h o w e v e r, t h a t c o n t r o l m a y i n c r e a s e w i t h a g e ,a l t h o u g h t h e p a u c i t y o f s t u d i e s i n t h i s d o m a i n l i m i t s o u r c o n f i -dence in these f ind ings .

T h e P r e s e n t S t u d i e s

I n t h e p r e s e n t s t u d i e s , w e u s e d a n e t h n i c a l l y a n d c u l t u r a l l yd i v e rs e s e t o f s a m p l e s t o e x a m i n e a g e - r e l a t e d ch a n g e s i n e m o -t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e , e x p r e s s i o n , a n d c o n t r o l . P a r t i c ip a n t s i n e a c h

of the samples , a l though rec ru i t ed fo r d i ffe ren t r e sea rch p ro j -e c t s , r e s p o n d e d t o i t e m s r e l e v a n t t o t h e s e t h r e e d o m a i n s . O u rr a t i o n a l e f o r c o n s i d e r i n g t h e s e d i v e rs e s a m p l e s t o g e t h er w a s t h a tt h e y c o n s t i t u t e d a w i d e l y d i s p a r a t e g r o u p o f p a r t i c i p a n t s ,t h e r e b y a l l o w i n g u s t o t e s t t h e r e l i a b i l i t y a n d g e n e r a l i z a b i l it y o ff i n d i n g s a b o u t a g e d i f f e r e n c e s i n e m o t i o n a n d e m o t i o n r e g u l a -t i o n . 1 A l t h o u g h a l l c r o s s - s e c t i o n a l a g e c o m p a r i s o n s - - i n c l u d i n gt h o s e d e s c r i b e d h e r e i n - - a r e i n d u b i t a b l y l i m i t e d i n t h e i r a b i l i t yto i l lum ina te age change , d i s t inc t ive cha rac te r i s t i c s o f the sam-p les a l lowed us to specu la te w i th g rea te r conf idence abou t poss i -b l e d e v e l o p m e n t a l c h a n g e s i n e m o t i o n a l r e g u l a t io n .

We h a d t w o m a j o r g o a l s i n t h is r e s e a rc h . O u r f i rs t g o a l w a st o r e p l i c a t e a n d t o e x t e n d p r e v i o u s r e s e a r c h o n e m o t i o n a n da g i n g b y u s i n g a w i d e r a r r a y o f m e a s u r e s o f e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i-

e n c e , e x p r e s s i o n , a n d c o n t r o l . O u r s e c o n d g o a l w a s t o a s s e s st h e p o s s i b i l i t y t h a t f i n d i n g s i n t h i s a r e a s t e m m e d f r o m s h a r e dc u l t u r a l a s s u m p t i o n s a m o n g W h i t e m i d d l e - c l a s s p a r t i c i p a n t s( w h o h a v e m a d e u p t h e v a s t m a j o r i t y o f s a m p l e s i n t h i s a r e a )r a t h e r t h a n f r o m t r u e a g e - r e l a t e d c h a n g e s ( s e e M c F a r l a n d ,R o s s , & G i l t r o w, 1 9 9 2 ) . I f s h a r e d c u l t u r a l a s s u m p t i o n s a b o u th o w e m o t i o n s a r e s u p p o s e d t o c h a n g e w i t h a g e r e fl e c t t h e b e l ie f so f a spec i f i c subpopu la t ion and these be l i e f s a re r e spons ib le fo rthe f ind ings in the l i t e ra tu re , we would no t expec t these resu l t st o g e n e r a l i z e w i d e l y a c r o s s e t h n i c a n d c u l t u r a l g r o u p s . C o n -verse ly, i f the f ind ings represen ted re l i ab le age - re la ted changes ,we w ould exp ec t to f ind s imi la r e ffec t s ac ross d ive r se cu l tu ra ls a m p l e s .

S t u d y 1: A f r i c a n A m e r i c a n a n d E u r o p e a n A m e r i c a nC o m m u n i t y S a m p le

O u r f i r s t st u d y d r e w p a r t i c i p a n t s f r o m t h e S a n F r a n c i s c o B a yarea , a cu l tu ra l ly, soc ioeconom ica l ly, and e thn ica l ly d ive r se geo-graph ica l r eg ion . To beg in to exp lo re age - re la ted changes ine m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e , e x p r e s s i vi t y, a n d c o n t r o l, w e u s e d g l o b a lm e a s u r e s o f e a c h d o m a i n . O n t h e b a s i s o f p r e v i o u s r e s e a r c h ,o u r e x p e c t a t i o n w a s t h a t c o m p a r e d w i t h y o u n g e r p a r t i c i p a n ts ,o l d e r p a r t i c ip a n t s w o u l d r e p o r t l e s s e r e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e a n dg r e a t er e m o t i o n a l c o n t r o l .

M e t h o d

Participants. One hundred and eighty-five African American andEuropean Am erican participants were recruited from the San FranciscBay a rea to participate in a field sampling stu dy of emotional experienc(Carstensen, Pasupathi, & Mayr, 1996). Participants were recruited by survey research firm with the aims of (a) representing the socioeconomidistribution of the San Francisco B ay area, (b) including equal numberof m en and women, and (c) overrepresenting A frican Americans anlimiting remaining participants to W hite Americans. Samp ling constraints were imposed to afford sufficient statistical power to examinethnic differences. These 185 participants were asked to complete aadditional questionnaire packet and of these, 127 (69 %) complied. Thes127 participants (71 w omen and 56 m en) ranged in age from 19 to 9years (M = 58.7 years,SD = 20.3); 76% were White, and 24% wereAfrican A merican.

Measures and procedure. A questionnaire packet was administeredby mail, and participants who completed the packet received $30 compensation. For the present study, participants completed the BerkeleyExpressivity Questionnaire (BEQ: Gross & John, 1995) and a singlquestion concerning emotional con trol- -res pon ses to this questionranged from 1(no control)to 10(complete control ) - -"O veral l ,ho wmuch control w ould you say you have over your emotion s?"

The BEQ is a 16-item questionnaire assessing individual differencein emotional expressivity. It has three sub scales: Imp ulse Strength (e.g"I have strong emotion s" and " I am sometimes unable to hide myfeelings, even though I would like to"), Positive Expressivity (e.g."W hen I 'm happy, my feelings show " ), and Negative Expressivity (e.g"Whenever I feet negative emotions, people can easily see exactly whaI'm feeling " ). Impulse Strength refers to intense emotional impulsethat the individual finds difficult to control, w hereas Positive and N egative Expressivity refer to the expression of positive and negative emotions, respectively. The three-facet structure of the B EQ has been replicated in several large college-student samples for both peer and selfratings (Gros s & John, 19 95, 1997). Although the three facet scaletend to correlate ab out .50 with each other, they show substantial convegent and disc rim inan t validity with peer ratings and differentially predispontaneous positive and negative emotion-expressive beh avior observein the laboratory (Gross & John, 1997).

R e s u l t s a n d D i s c u s s i o n

Afte r a med ia n sp l i t on age , 2 x 2 x 2 ana lyses o f va r i anc e( A N O V A s , A g e [ y o u n g e r v s. o ld e r ] E t h n i c i t y [ A f r i c a n A m e r-i c a n vs . E u r o p e a n A m e r i c a n ] S e x ) w e r e c o n d u c t e d f o r th efour emot ion measures : impulse s t r eng th , pos i t ive express iv i ty,n e g a t i v e e x p re s s i vi t y, a n d e m o t i o n a l c o n t r o l. N o n e o f t h e i n t e r -a c t i o n s i n v o l v i n g a g e w a s s i g n i fi c a n t . A s s h o w n i n Ta b l e 1 ,c o m p a r e d w i t h y o u n g e r p a r t i c i p a n t s ( a g e s 1 9 - 5 6 y e a r s ) , o l d e rp a r t i c i p a n t s ( a g e s 5 8 - 9 6 y e a r s ) r e p o r t e d l e s s e r i m p u l s es t reng th , l e s se r pos i t ive express iv i ty, l e s se r neg a t ive express iv i tyand g rea te r emot iona l con t ro l . These resu l t s ind ica te tha t age i s

a s s o c i a te d w i t h d i m i n i s h e d i n t e n s i t y o f e m o t i o n a l i m p u l s e s , ac o n c o m i t a n t l e s s e n i n g o f o u t w a r d s i g n s o f b o t h p o s i t i v e a n dn e g a t i v e e m o t i o n a l e x p r e s s i o n s , a n d i n c r e a s e d e m o t i o n a l c o n -t r o l. 2 A g e d i f f e r en c e s w e r e e v i d e n t f o r A f r i c a n A m e r i c a n a n dE u r o p e a n A m e r i c a n i n d i v i d u a l s o f b o t h s e x e s .

Unfortunately, m inimal inform ation was obtained from participantin these studies regarding participant characteristics such as educatiolevel and socioeconomic status. Thi s precludes an analysis that considerthe role of such participant characteristics.

2 In secondary analyses, we also exam ined nonlin ear age trends byentering the age-squared term after the age term in multiple regressio


4/10

E M O T I O N A N D A G I N G 5 9 3

Ta b l e 1Emot iona l I n t ens i t y, E x p re s s i o n , a n d C on t ro l i nTw o A g e G r o u p s i n S t u d y 1

Younger Older

Variable M S D M S D t p

Imp ulse strength 4.85 1.11 4.45 1.13 1.95 .05Expressivity

Posi tive 5.59 0.98 5.21 0.93 2.18 .03Ne gativ e 3.90 0.99 3.52 1.01 2.13 .04

Con trol 6.05 1.73 7.07 1.92 2.94 .01

Note. n = 127 . Younger participants ranged in age from 19 to 56; olderparticipants ranged in age from 58 to 96.

Study 2 : Ch inese Am er i can and European Am er i canCommunity Sample

To a s se s s t h e r o b u s t n e s s o f t h e i m p u l s e s t re n g t h a n d e x p r e s -s i v i t y f i n d i n g s f r o m S t u d y 1 , w e e x a m i n e d t h e B E Q i n a n o t h e r

g r o u p o f E u r o p e a n A m e r i c a n s a s w e l l a s a n e t h n i c g r o u p t r a d i-t i o n a l l y a s s o c i a t e d w i t h l e s s e r e m o t i o n a l e x p r e s s i v i t y, n a m e l y,A s i a n A m e r i c a n s ( s e e G r o s s & J o h n , 1 9 9 5 , in p re s s ; L a i &L i n d e n , 1 9 9 3 ; S ch e r e r, Wa l l b o t t , M a t s u m o t o , & K u d o h , 1 9 8 8 ) .

Method

Participants. As part of a study on emotion and ethnicity, 96 Chi-nese American and Europ ean Am erican participants from the San Fran-c isco Bay area were recrui ted to f i ll two age ce l l s: young (2 0-3 5 years)and old (7 0- 85 years; Tsai, Levenson, & Carstensen, 1 992 ). Participantswere drawn from a variety of Bay area agencies and resources (e.g. ,churches and comm unity centers). A ll were native English speakers.To control for differences in levels of acculturation, we recruited onlyparticipants who we re second-generation Chinese Am ericans (i .e. , whose

parents h ad been born in China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan).On c omp letion of the parent study, participants were asked to fi l l out

several additional questionnaires at hom e and ma il them to the exp eri-menter. O f these 96 participants, 82 (85 %) com plied with this request.These 82 participants included 40 younger adults (49 %) and 42 olderadults ( 51% ). T he younger participants ranged in age from 20 to 34years (M = 27 years,SD = 4.1 ); 19 were Chin ese American ( 10 wom enand 9 men ) , and 21 w ere European American ( 11 women and 10 men) .The older participants ranged in age from 70 to 85 years (M = 74.7years, SD = 4 .1) ; 20 w ere Chinese American (11 wom en and 9 men) ,and 22 were European Am erican ( 11 women and 11 men) .

Measures and procedure. As in Study 1, participants com ple ted theBEQ . In addition, participants com plete d a mo re differentiated measureof emotional control, the Courtauld Em otional Control Scale (CEC;Watson & Greer, 1983). The CEC contains 21 items that assess control

of three neg ative emotions: anger, anxiety, and unhappiness. Exam plei tems inc lude the fo l lowing: "W hen I fee l angry, I h ide my an noyance ,""When I feel anxious, I smother my feelings," and "When I feel un-happy, I keep quiet ."


F o r e a c h o f th e s ix e m o t i o n m e a s u r e s , 2 X 2 x 2 A N O VA s( A g e [ y o u n g e r v s . o l d e r ] x E t h n i c i t y [ C h i n e s e A m e r i c a n v s.

analyses. In no case did this lead to a significant incremen t in proportionof variance explained.

E u r o p e a n A m e r i c a n ] x S e x ) w e r e c o n d u c t e d . T h e o n l y i n t e r a c -t i o n i n v o l v i n g a g e w a s a n A g e E t h n i c i t y i n t e r a c ti o n f o r i m -pu l s e s t r eng th , F ( 1, 73 ) = 5 .40 , p = . 02 . T h i s i n t e r a c t i o n w a sa t t r i b u t a b l e t o t h e f a c t t h a t o l d e r E u r o p e a n A m e r i c a n p a r t i c i -p a n t s r e p o r t e d l e s s e r im p u l s e s t re n g t h t h a n t h e i r y o u n g e r E u r o -p e a n A m e r i c a n c o u n t e r p a r t s ( m e a n i m p u l s e s t r e n g t h , o l d e r =

4 . 3 a n d y o u n g e r = 5 . 5 ) , t ( 4 0 ) = 4 . 3 0 , p < . 0 0 1 ; w h e r e a s t h e r ew a s n o a g e d i f f e r e n c e i n i m p u l s e s t r e n g th f o r C h i n e s e A m e r i c a np a r t i c i p a n t s ( m e a n i m p u l s e s t r e n g t h , o l d e r = 4 . 7 a n d y o u n g e r= 4 . 9 ) , t ( 3 7 ) = 0 . 5 0 ,n s . O n e m a i n e f f e c t o f a g e a ls o e m e rg e d :C o m p a r e d w i t h y o u n g e r p a r t i c ip a n t s , o l d e r p a r ti c i p a n t s r e p o r t e dg rea t e r ange r con t ro l , t ( 74 ) = 3 .02 , p < . 01 . T h e re we r e noo t h e r e f f e c t s i n v o l v i n g a g e , a n d m e a n s b y a g e g r o u p a r e g i v e nin Tab l e 2 .

T h e s e f i n di n g s e x t e n d t h e r e s u lt s o f S t u d y 1 b y s u g g e s t i n gt h a t t h e i n c r e a s e d e m o t i o n a l c o n t r o l a s s o c i a t e d w i t h a g i n g m a yv a r y b y e m o t i o n a n d b e e v i d e n t f o r s o m e n e g a t i v e e m o t i o n s( a n g e r ) b u t n o t o t h e r s ( u n h a p p i n e s s a n d a n x i e t y ) . O f t h e t h r e eB E Q s u b s c a le s , I m p u l s e S t r e n g t h s e e m e d t o s h o w t h e m o s trobus t age d i f f e r ences a c ro s s s t ud i e s . Th i s s t udy a l s o s u gg e s t s

t h a t t h e r e m a y b e i m p o r t a n t e t h n i c d i f f e r e n c e s i n t h e s e e f f e c t s ,w i t h a g e d i f f e r e n c e s e v i d e n t i n E u r o p e a n A m e r i c a n p a r t i c ip a n t sb u t n o t i n C h i n e s e A m e r i c a n p a r t i c i p a n t s .

S t u dy 3 : N o r w e g i a n C o m m u n i t y S a m p l e

I n th i s s tu d y, w e e x p a n d e d o u r f o c u s t o e x a m i n e e m o t i o n a n da g i n g i n a n o n - U . S , s a m p l e . B o t h t h i s s t u d y a n d t h e n e x t a d -d r e s s e d o n e i m p o r t a n t l i m i t a t io n o f t h e f i r st t w o s t u d i e s ; n a m e l y,t h e i r r e l i a n c e o n t h e B E Q I m p u l s e S t r e n g t h s u b s c a l e . B e c a u s et h i s s u b s c a l e r e f e rs t o t h e e x p e r i e n c e o f s t r o n g e m o t i o n a l i m -pu l s e s t ha t a r e d i f f i cu l t t o con t ro l , i t i s d i f f i c u l t t o t e l l wh e t h e ra g e d i f f e r e n c e s i n i m p u l s e s t r e n g t h a r e d u e t o a g e d i f f e r e n c e si n t he s t r e n g th o f e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e o r i n e m o t i o n a l c o n t r o l .We a d d r e s s e d t h i s l im i t a t i o n b y a s k i n g s e p a r a t e l y a b o u t t h ee x p e r i e n c e a n d c o n t r o l o f a r a n g e o f p o s i t iv e a n d n e g a t i v e e m o -t i on s . I n a d d i t io n , w e d i s t i n g u i s h e d b e t w e e n t h e c o n t r o l o f i n n e re m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e a n d o u t e r e m o t i o n - e x p r e s s i v e b e h a v i o r.We e x p e c t e d a g e - r e l a t e d d e c r e a s e s i n t h e e x p e r i e n c e o f n e g a t iv ee m o t i o n s a n d w e r e m o s t c e r t a i n o f t h is p r e d i c t i o n f o r a n g e r,w h i c h i n S t u d y 2 h a d s h o w n a g e - r e l a t e d i n c r e a s e s i n c o n t r o l .G i v e n t h e l a c k o f r e p l i c a b i l i t y o f t h e e x p r e s s i v i t y f i n d i ng s f r o mS t u d y 1 t o S t u d y 2 , w e e x p e c t e d a g e d i f f e r e n c e s in t h e i n te r n a lc o n t r o l o f e m o t i o n ( i .e . , th e c o n t r o l o f e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e )b u t n o t n e c e s s a r i l y i n t h e e x t e r n a l c o n t r o l o f e m o t i o n ( i . e . , t h ec o n t r o l o f e m o t i o n - e x p r e s s i v e b e h a v i o r ) .

Method

Participants. Participants were 30 younger (20-35 years) and 19older adults (7 0+ years) l iving in and around Trondheim, Norway. Thesample w as generated by the Norwe gian Da ta Center following authori-zation fro m the Norw egian Data Inspectorate, both of which regulateacce ss to representative samples in Norway. In the younger group, 17were fem ale participants; in the older group, 12 were fem ale participants.

Measures and procedure, The Carstensen Emotion Questionnaire(CE Q) asks participants to indicate how frequently they experience eachof five em otion s (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and disgu st) w ith a 4-poin t Likert-type scale: 1(never) , 2( rare ly) , 3(somet imes) ,an d 4(of-ten) . These target emotions w ere chosen to sample an imp ortant posit ive


5/10

5 9 4 G R O SS E T A L .

Ta b l e 2E m o t i o n a l I n t e n s i t y, E x p r e s s i o n , a n d C o n t r o l i nTw o A g e G r o u p s i n S t u d y 2

Yo u n g e r O l d e r

Var iab le M S D M S D t p

Imp ulse streng th 5.21 1.04 4.51 0.93 3.17 .01Express iv i ty

Posit iv e 5.44 0.98 5.18 0.96 1.21 .23Neg ative 3.81 1.05 3.69 0.85 0.59 .56

C o n t r o lAng er 2 .17 0 .57 2 .55 0 .52 3 .02 .01An xiety 2.33 0.59 2.52 0.45 1.51 .13Unhap piness 2 .34 0 .60 2 .49 0 .55 1 .11 .27

Note. n = 82 . Younger par t ic ipants ranged in age f rom 20 to 34 ; o lderpar t ic ipants ranged in age f rom 70 to 85 .

emot ion as wel l as a range of nega t ive emot ions . Because of the na tura lconfounding o f in tens i ty and cont ro l lab i l i ty tha t i s ev ident in the BE QImpulse S t rength subsca le , we e lec ted to assess the f requency of emo-t iona l exper ience in th i s s tudy, be l iev ing tha t th i s might p rovide a some-what more ob jec t ive measure of exper ience than in tens i ty repor t s andmight therefore be less suscept ib le to s te reo type repor t ing e ffec t s .

The CEQ a lso asked par t ic ipants to ind ica te the i r ab i l i ty to cont ro l(a ) the inner exper ience and (b ) the ex te rna l s igns of the same f ivetarget emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust) with a 4-poin t scale: 1not a t a l l ) , 2 ( a l i t t le) , 3(pretty well) ,and 4(very wel l ) .As descr ibed above , our expec ta t ions were tha t we w ould see age- re la tedchanges in in te rna l cont ro l ra ther than in ex te rna l cont ro l and tha t theseeffec ts would be m os t obvious for anger.

Par t ic ipants were sen t the CEQ by mai l . Those who d id no t answerthe f i r s t ques t ionna i re were sen t one reminder on ly in keeping wi thregula t ions of the Norwegian Data Inspec tora te .

e x t e r n a l c o n t r o l o f e m o t i o n d i d n o t s h o w a g e - r e la t e d c h a n g e si n e m o t i o n .

T h i s p a t t e r n o f re s u l t s s u g g e s t s s i g n i f i c a n t l y g r e a t e r e m o t i o n a lc o n t r o l w i t h a g i n g b u t , m o r e i m p o r t a n t , q u a l i f i e s t h e f i n d i n g sf r o m t h e f i rs t t w o s t u d i e s b y s u g g e s t i n g t h a t t h e s e e f f e c t s a r ee v i d e n t f o r i n t e r n a l r a t h e r t h a n e x t e r n a l c o n t r o l , a n d w h e n t h e r e

a r e s e x d i f f e r e n c e s , a s w i t h a n g e r, w o m e n a r e m o r e l i k e l y t os h o w a g e - r e l a t e d c h a n g e s t h a n a r e m e n .

S t u d y 4 : N u n S a m p l e

O n e l i m i t a t i o n o f t h e f ir s t t h r e e s t u d i e s - - a s w e l l a s a ll o t h e rsw e a r e a w a r e o f in t h i s a r e a - - i s t h e i r r e l i a n c e o n c r o s s -s e c t i o n a ld e s i g n s , w h i c h i n t r o d u c e s t h e s t r o n g p o s s i b i l i t y o f c o h o r t e f -f e ct s . A l t h o u g h w e w e r e i m p r e s s e d b y t h e c o n s i s t e n c y o f f i n d-i n g s a c r o s s U . S . a n d N o r w e g i a n s a m p l e s , i n S t u d y 4 w e r e l i e do n a l ar g e s a m p l e o f n u n s . T h i s u n i q u e s a m p l e p e r m i t t e d u s t oe x a m i n e t h e f re q u e n c y o f a n d p e r c e i v e d c o n t r o l o v e r e m o t i o n a le x p e r i e n c e i n a p o p u l a t i o n w h o s e m e m b e r s a l l s h a r e a w i d er a n g e o f f a c to r s t h a t m a y b e c o n f o u n d e d w i t h a g e i n t h e g e n er a l

p o p u l a t i o n . T h a t i s , a l t h o u g h c o h o r t d i f f e r e n c e s c l e a r l y e x i s ta m o n g n u n s , m a n y f a c to r s , s u c h a s d i et , w o r k , r e l i g i o u s c o m m i t -m e n t , s e x u a l p r a c t i c e s , a n d o t h e r f a c to r s t h a t v a r y w i d e l y a c r o s sa g e c o h o r t s i n t h e g e n e ra l p o p u l a t i o n a r e f a r m o r e c o n s t a n ta c r o s s a g e g r o u p s . A s i n S t u d y 3 , w e m e a s u r e d f r e q u e n c y o fe m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e s e p a r a t e l y f r o m e m o t i o n a l c o n t r o l a n de x a m i n e d b o t h p o s i t i v e a n d n e g a t i v e e m o t i o n s .

O n t h e b a s i s o f o u r d e v e l o p i n g u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f a g e - r e l a te dc h a n g e s i n t h e s e t h r e e d o m a i n s , o u r g e n e r al e x p e c t a t i o n w a st h a t c o m p a r e d w i t h y o u n g e r n u n s , o l d e r n u n s w o u l d r e p o r t l e s s e re x p e r i e n c e o f n e g a t i v e e m o t i o n ( a t l e a s t f o r a n g e r ) , g r e a t e ri n t e r n a l c o n t r o l o f a l l e m o t i o n s , a n d e q u i v a l e n t e x t e r n a l c o n t r o l


A 2 x 2 A N O VA ( A g e [ y o u n g e r v s . o l d e r [ x S e x ) w a s u s e dt o a n a l y z e e a c h o f t h e 1 5 r e s p o n s e s t o t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e ( 5e m o t i o n s x 3 d i m e n s i o n s ) . Tw o A g e S e x i n t er a c t i o n s w e r es i g n if i c an t . O l d e r w o m e n r e p o r t e d a l o w e r f r e q u e n c y o f a n g e re x p e r i e n c e th a n y o u n g e r w o m e n , t ( 2 7 ) = 3 . 8 4 , p < . 0 01 ,w h e r e a s o l d e r a n d y o u n g e r m e n d i d n o t d i f f e r in t h e f r e q u e n c yw i t h w h i c h t h e y e x p e r i e n c e d a n g e r . I n a d d i t i o n , o l d e r w o m e nr e p o r t e d a g r e a t e r a b i l i t y t o c o n t r o l t h e i n t e r n a l e x p e r i e n c e o fa n g e r t h a n y o u n g e r w o m e n , t ( 2 7 ) = 2 . 7 4 , p < . 02 ; o ld e r a n dy o u n g e r m e n d i d n o t d i f f er i n t h e i r re p o r t e d a b i l i t y t o c o n t r o lt h e i n t e r n a l e x p e r i e n c e o f a n g e r. T h e r e w e r e n o o t h e r i n t e r a c t i o n s

w i t h s e x , a n d w e p r o v i d e m e a n r e s p o n s e s b y a g e g r o u p i n Ta -b l e 3 .A s d e s c r i b e d a b o v e , t h e s i n g l e a g e - r e l a t e d e f f e c t f o r f r e -

q u e n c y o f e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e w a s f o r an g e r. T h i s e f f e c t w a sa t t r i b u t a b l e t o o l d e r w o m e n r e p o r t i n g a l o w e r f r e q u e n c y o f a n g e re x p e r i e n c e t h a n y o u n g e r w o m e n . I n t h e d o m a i n o f i n t e rn a l e m o -t i o n a l c o n t r o l , th e r e w e r e a g e - r e l a t e d i n c r e a s e s i n e m o t i o n a lc o n t r o l f o r e a c h o f th e f iv e e m o t i o n s . I n o n e c a s e , a s d e s c r i b e da b o v e , t h i s e f f e c t w a s q u a l i f i e d b y a n A g e x S e x i n t e r a c t i o nt h a t w a s d u e t o o l d e r w o m e n r e p o r t i n g g r e a t e r i n te r n a l c o n t r o lf o r a n g e r t h a n y o u n g e r w o m e n , w h e r e a s t h e r e w e r e n o a g e d i f f e r -e n c e s e v i d e n t f o r a n g e r f o r m e n . A s e x p e c t e d , t h e d o m a i n o f

Ta b l e 3E m o t i o n E x p e r i e n c e , I n t e r n a l C o n t r o l, a n d E x t e r n a l C o n t r o li n Tw o A g e G r o u p s i n S tu d y 3

Yo u n g e r O l d e r

Var iab le M S D M S D t p

Exper ienceHap piness 3.67 0.55 3.68 0.48 0.11 .91Sadness 2 .73 0 .64 2 .84 0 .77 0 .54 .59Fear 2.16 0.65 2.31 0.82 0.71 .48Ang er 2 .86 0 .73 2 .32 0 .75 2 .55 .02Disg ust 2.16 0.65 1.84 0.77 1.59 .12

In te rna l cont ro lHappiness 2 .73 0 .79 3 .47 0 .83 2 .70 .02

Sadness 2 .60 0 .89 3 .10 0 .66 2 .12 .04Fear 2.63 0.89 3.21 0.86 2.27 .03An ger 3.03 0.72 3.47 0.61 2.21 .04Disgus t 2 .60 0 .93 3 .37 0 .96 2 .79 .01

Externa l cont ro lHap piness 2.63 0.81 2.68 0.75 0.22 .83Sadn ess 2.70 0.79 2.95 0.62 1.15 .26Fear 2 .93 0 .64 3 .00 0 .82 0 .32 .75Anger 3 .00 0 .78 2 .89 0 .88 0 .44 .66Disg ust 2.70 0.79 3.16 1.07 1.72 .09

Note. n = 49 . Younger par t ic ipants ranged in age f rom 25 to 35 ;o lder par t ic ipants were over 70 years . Al l w ere represen ta t ive of the i rrespec t ive age groups in the geographic reg ion of Trondheim, Norway.


6/10

E M O T I O N A N D A G I N G 5 9 5

o f e m o t i o n . I n a d d i t i o n t o t e s t in g t h e s e h y p o t h e s e s , t h e l a rg es i z e o f th i s s a m p l e e n a b l e d u s t o t e s t t h e n a t u r e o f r e l a ti o n sa m o n g t h e t h r e e d o m a i n s m o r e d i r e c t l y t h a n w a s p o s s i b l e i nS t u d y 3 . B e c a u s e n e g a t i v e e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e i s a v e rs i v e , a n dp o s i t i v e e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e i s e n j o y a b l e , w e e x p e c t e d t h a ti n t e r n a l e m o t i o n a l c o n t r o l ( a n d , t o a l e s s e r d e g r e e , e x t e r n a l

e m o t i o n a l c o n t r o l ) s h o u l d b e n e g a t i v e l y r e l a t e d t o n e g a t i v e e m o -t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e a n d p o s i t i v e l y r e l a t e d t o p o s i t i v e e m o t i o n a le x p e r i e n c e .

M e ~ o d

Participants. An en tire midwestern comm unity of religious sisterswas targeted to participate in a surve y of mental and physical health(Carstensen & Burrus, 1996). As noted above, age comp arisons withina religious order benefit from com mon alit ies in l ifestyle across the agerange. No ne of the sisters was m arried, had retired, o r shared a n intimaterelationship with another person? A pproxim ately one third o f the sisterslived in the same dwelling (viz. , the Motherhouse), with the majorityof the remaining sisters living in apartments nearby, The sisters all prac-ticed the same religion, and dietary and lifestyle practices were highly

homogeneous. Of 1,566 prospective participants, 1,080 (69%) returnedcom plet ed 34-page questionnaires that includ ed three questions aboutemotions (described below). The resulting sample ranged in age from24 to 101 years (M = 66.6 years,SD = 13.6).

Measures and procedure. Participants com pleted the CEQ indicatinghow frequently they experie nce d five em otions (happiness, sadness, fear,anger, and disgust) w ith a 4-point scale: 1(never), 2(rarely), 3(some-times), and 4(often).Participants also indicated, for the same five em o-tions, how well they were able to control (a) the inner experience ofthese emotions and (b) the external signs of these emotions with a 4-point scale: 1(not at all) , 2 (a l i t t le), 3(pretty well)an d 4(very w el l ).


C o r r e l a t i o n s b e t w e e n a g e a n d e m o t i o n a l r e s p o n s e d o m a i n sr eve a l ed a d i f f e r en t i a t e d p a t t e r n o f r e su l t s . 4 A s p r e sen t ed i nTa b l e 4 , a g i n g w a s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h d e c r e a s e d e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i -e n c e o f a n g e r, s a d n e s s , a n d f e a r ( b u t n o t d i s g u s t ) a n d w i t hi n c r e a s e d e x p e r i e n c e o f h a p p in e s s . T h e s e f i n d in g s r e g a r d i n gc h a n g e s i n e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e i n o l d e r a g e a r e c o n s i s t e n tw i th a sma l l l i t e r a t u r e t h a t sh o w s t h a t d e sp i t e h i gh l eve l s o fc o n s i s t e n c y i n r a n k o r d e r o n a f f e c t i v e d i m e n s i o n s o f p e r so n a l i ty,ag ing t yp i ca l l y i s a s so c i a t ed w i t h i n c r ea se s i n po s i t i ve t r a i t s andd e c r e a s e s i n n e g a t i v e t r a it s ( e . g . , H e l s o n & K l o h n e n , i n p r e s s ) .

D i s t i n c t i o n s b e t w e e n t w o f o r m s o f e m o t i o n a l c o n t r o l ( i n te r n a lv s . e x t e r n a l ) a n d a m o n g e m o t i o n s a l s o p r o v e d i m p o r t a n t . A g i n gw a s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h i n c r e a s e d i n n e r a n d o u t e r c o n t r o l o f h a p p i -

Ta b l e 4Cor re l a t ions Be tw een Age and Emot ion Exp e r i enceand Tw o Forms o f Con t ro l in S tudy 4

Variable Happiness Sadness Fear An ger Disgust

Expe r ience . 07 - . 3 1 - . 15 - . 3 2 - . 05Internal con trol .19 .15 .08 .08 -.0 1External control .20 .16 - .0 1 .04 - .0 7

Note. n = 1,080. Participants ranged in age from 24 to 1 01. Correla-tions with absolute value s > .06 are significant at p < .05 (two-tailed).

ne s s and s adnes s , a s we l l a s t he i nne r con t ro l o f f e a r a nd a n ge r.A g i n g w a s a l s o s l i g h t l y n e g a t i v e l y c o r r e l a t e d w i t h t h e c o n t r o lo f ex t e rna l s i gn s o f d i sgus t . Ove ra l l , th en , t h i s pa t t e rn o f r e su l t ss u g g e s t s a d i m i n u t i o n o f n e g a t i v e e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e a s o n ea g e s a n d e n h a n c e d c o n t r o l o f t h e i n n e r e x p e r i e n c e a n d o u t e re x p r e s s i o n o f n e g a t i v e a n d p o s i t i v e e m o t i o n s .

A s d e s c r i b e d a b o v e , w e e x p e c t e d t h a t r e p o r t e d e m o t i o n a lc o n t r o l w o u l d p r e d i c t e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e a n d t h a t t h e s e r e l a -t i o n s w o u l d b e s t r o n g e r f o r i n n e r c o n t r o l , w h i c h e x p l i c i t l y t a r -g e t s e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e , t h a n f o r e x t e r n a l c o n t r o l, w h i c h t a r -g e t s e x p r e s s i v e b e h a v i o r. M o r e o v e r , w e e x p e c t e d t h a t f o r t h en e g a t i v e e m o t i o n s , t h e s e r e l a t i o n s w o u l d b e n e g a t i v e ; t h a t i s ,g r e a t e r c o n t r o l w o u l d l e a d t o l e s se r e x p e r i e n c e o f n e g a t i v e e m o -t i o n s b e c a u s e c o n t r o l w o u l d b e e x e r c i s e d i n o r d e r t o l e s s e ns u b j e c t iv e e x p e r i e n c e o f n e g a t i v e e m o t i o n s . B y c o n t r a s t, w ee x p e c t e d t h a t f o r t h e p o s i t iv e e m o t i o n o f h a p p i n e s s , t h e r e l a ti o nb e t w e e n s u b j e c t i v e e x p e r i e n c e o f e m o t i o n a n d c o n t r o l w o u l d b ep o s i t iv e ; t h a t i s, g r e a t e r c o n t r o l w o u l d l e a d t o g r e a t e r e x p e r i e n c eo f p o s it i v e e m o t i o n b e c a u s e c o n t r o l w o u l d b e e x e r c i s e d i n o r d e rt o i n c r e a s e t h e e x p e r i e n c e o f p o s i t i v e e m o t i o n .

To t e s t t h e s e p r e d i c t i o n s , w e c o r r e l a t e d e x p e r i e n c e , i n t e r n a lc o n t r o l , a n d e x t e r n a l c o n t r o l f o r e a c h o f t h e f i ve e m o t i o n s . A se x p e c t e d , w e f o u n d t h a t f o r t h e n e g a t i v e e m o t i o n s , b o t h i n t e r n a la n d e x t e r n a l c o n t r o l w e r e n e g a t i v e l y r e l a t e d t o e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i -e n c e ( r s r a n g e d f r o m - . 2 5 t o - . 3 1 f o r i n t e rn a l c o n tr o l an df r o m - . 2 0 t o - . 2 4 f o r e x t e r n a l c o n t r o l , al l p s < . 00 1 ) . F o re a c h e m o t i o n , t h e s t re n g t h o f t h e r e la t i o n b e t w e e n c o n t r o l a n de x p e r i e n c e w a s g r e a t e r f o r i n te r n a l t h a n f o r e x t e r n a l c o n t r o l. Tot e s t w h e t h e r t h e s e d i f f e r e n c e s w e r e s i g n i fi c a n t , w e u s e d F i s h e r ' sz t r a n s f o r m a t i o n a n d t h e f o r m u l a f o r d e p e n d e n t c o r r e l a t i o n c o e f -f i c i en t s . We found t ha t t h i s d i f f e r ence was s i gn i f i c a n t f o r s a d -nes s , t ( 1 , 046 ) = 1 .95 , p = . 05 , and f ear, t ( 1 , 0 30 ) = 3 . 23 , p

emotion and aging

Documents