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

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Affect; Aging; Co-occurrence; Emotion recovery; Mood induction.

Fig. 1

Order of study procedures presented. Figure does not include all instructions and items presented to participants and instead represents the general order of conditions

Fig. 2

a Negative affects increased significantly in response to, and decreased significantly during recovery from, the mood induction for both older and younger adults. Older adults reported greater reactivity and recovery than younger adults in NA and Hostility. b Positive affects decreased significantly in response to, and increased significantly during recovery from, the mood induction for both older and younger adults. Older adults reported greater PA and Assurance scores than younger adults during reactivity to and recovery from the mood induction

Fig. 3

Older adults endorsed higher co-occurrence of NA and PA, as measured by a mixed emotion score, than younger adults during reaction to the mood induction, controlling for depressive symptoms, estimated VIQ, and arousal ratings. Error bars represent standard errors