Department of Psychology, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Cogn Emot. 2020 Aug;34(5):1010-1019. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2019.1697647. Epub 2019 Dec 6.
Evidence suggests that older adults experience greater emotional well-being compared to younger adults. Appraisal theories of emotion posit that differences in emotional experience are the result of differences in appraisal. As such, age differences in appraisal may relate to age differences in emotion. To investigate this, the present study focused on appraisals of control. Research suggests that losses of control lead to greater negative affect. Therefore, older adulthood was predicted to be associated with increased appraisal of self-control and less negative affect. To investigate this idea, we used an emotionally ambiguous scenario paradigm. Older and younger participants read fourteen ambiguous scenarios, imaging themselves as the main character. After each scenario, participants appraised the scenarios on three different control dimensions: -, and . Afterward, they rated their feelings toward the scenarios on seven different emotional states. The results showed that compared to younger adults, older adults appraised more self-control relative to other- and circumstantial-control, and also experienced less negative affect in response to the scenarios. Importantly, in a mediation analysis, self-control relative to other-control explained age differences in emotional reactions toward the scenarios. This finding reflects the importance of considering the role of appraisal in age differences in emotional experience.
证据表明，老年人比年轻人更能体验到更大的情绪幸福感。情绪的评价理论假设，情绪体验的差异是评价差异的结果。因此，评价上的年龄差异可能与情绪上的年龄差异有关。为了研究这一点，本研究集中于控制的评价。研究表明，控制的丧失会导致更大的负面情绪。因此，预计老年期与自我控制感的增强和较少的负面情绪有关。为了验证这一观点，我们使用了一种情绪模糊情景范式。年长和年轻的参与者阅读了 14 个模糊情景，想象自己是主角。每个情景之后，参与者从三个不同的控制维度来评价情景：自我、他人和情境。之后，他们对情景的七种不同情绪状态进行了评价。结果表明，与年轻成年人相比，年长成年人在自我控制方面的评价更高，而在他人控制和情境控制方面的评价则更低，而且对情景的反应也表现出较少的负面情绪。重要的是，在中介分析中，自我控制相对于他人控制解释了对情景的情绪反应的年龄差异。这一发现反映了在情绪体验的年龄差异中考虑评价作用的重要性。
