Zhou Liqing, Lu Jia, Chen Guopeng, Dong Li, Yao Yujia
a School of Psychology and Cognitive Science , East China Normal University , Shanghai , China.
b Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, School of Education , Hangzhou Normal University , Zhejiang , China.
Exp Aging Res. 2017 Jan-Feb;43(1):80-93. doi: 10.1080/0361073X.2017.1258254.
Background/Study Context: Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) states that the positivity effect is a result of older adults' emotion regulation and that older adults derive more emotional satisfaction from prioritizing positive information processing. The authors explored whether the positivity effect appeared when the negative aging stereotype was activated in older adults and also whether the effect differed between mixed and unmixed valence conditions.
Sixty younger (18-23 years of age) and 60 older (60-87 years of age) adults were randomly assigned to a control group and a priming group, in which the negative aging stereotype was activated. All the participants were asked to select 15 words that best described the elderly from a mixed-word list (positive and negative words were mixed together) and from an unmixed-word list (positive and negative words were separated).
Older adults in the control group selected more positive words, whereas among younger adults, selection did not differ by valence in either the mixed- or unmixed-word list conditions. There were no differences between the positive and negative word choices of the younger and older adults in the priming group. We calculated the differences between the numbers of positive and negative words, and the differences in the older adults' word choices were larger than those among the younger adults; the differences were also larger in the control group than in the priming group.
The positivity effect worked by choosing positive stimuli rather than avoiding negative stimuli. The role of emotion regulation in older adults was limited, and when the positivity effect faced the effect of the negative aging stereotype, the negative stereotype effect was dominant. Future research should explore the changes in the positivity effect in the face of a positive aging stereotype and what roles other factors (e.g., activation level of the stereotype, arousal level of affective words) might play.
背景/研究背景：社会情感选择性理论（SST）指出，积极效应是老年人情绪调节的结果，并且老年人通过优先处理积极信息获得更多情感满足感。作者探讨了在老年人中激活消极衰老刻板印象时积极效应是否会出现，以及在混合价态和非混合价态条件下该效应是否存在差异。
60名年轻人（18 - 23岁）和60名老年人（60 - 87岁）被随机分配到对照组和启动组，启动组中激活了消极衰老刻板印象。所有参与者被要求从一个混合词列表（正负词混合在一起）和一个非混合词列表（正负词分开）中选择最能描述老年人的15个词。
对照组中的老年人选择了更多积极的词，而在年轻人中，无论是混合词列表还是非混合词列表条件下，选择在价态上没有差异。启动组中年轻人和老年人在正负词选择上没有差异。我们计算了正负词数量之间的差异，老年人的词选择差异比年轻人的更大；对照组中的差异也比启动组中的更大。
积极效应通过选择积极刺激而非避免消极刺激起作用。情绪调节在老年人中的作用有限，当积极效应面对消极衰老刻板印象的影响时，消极刻板印象效应占主导。未来的研究应探讨面对积极衰老刻板印象时积极效应的变化，以及其他因素（如刻板印象的激活水平、情感词的唤醒水平）可能发挥的作用。
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