Emotion In Adulthood Research Articles

Rich and Balanced Experiences of Daily Emotions Are Associated With Activity Diversity Across Adulthood

Abstract We examined whether the diversity of daily activities (“activity diversity”) is associated with the diversity of daily emotions (“emodiversity”) and if the association differs by age. Two samples of adults from the Midlife in the United States Study provided activity and emotion data for eight days. Greater activity diversity was associated with greater positive and negative emodiversity in each sample. Age moderated the association between activity diversity and positive emodiversity in an older sample, such that association was stronger for younger adults than for older adults. Results from data combining the two samples revealed that the associations of activity diversity with positive or negative emodiversity were significant when age < 70, 71 years, respectively. Broad and even participation of daily activities may provide more opportunities to experience rich and balanced emotions in adulthood. The weaker associations in older age may suggest the need to promote active lifestyles in later life.

Power and paragraphs: academic writing and emotion

Emotions play an important role in academic writing (Cameron, Nairn and Higgins, 2009), and, as learning developers, we often support students with the emotional aspects of their work. The process of writing is strongly linked to identity. Research into academic literacies has highlighted the fact that this often involves complex negotiations, especially for students from widening participation backgrounds (Lea and Street, 1998). Students’ past experiences of learning strongly shape their identity as learners. For example, the early challenges with literacy faced by people with dyslexia often continue to affect their emotions in adulthood (Pollak, 2005; Alexander-Passe, 2015). The concept of learning identities (Bloomer and Hodkinson, 2000; Christie et al., 2007) helps us to understand students’ emotional responses in the wider context of their lives. This paper uses two case histories of students with dyslexia, who were also the first in their family to go to university, to explore the role of academic writing in shaping a student’s learning identity. It argues that learning developers are in a good position to help students develop a positive sense of themselves as academic writers.

Disordered eating among college students: The effects of parental attachment and the mediating role of emotion dysregulation

Objectives The current study explored the relationship between parental attachment and disordered eating among college students. This study also explored the potential mediating role of factors associated with emotion regulation. Participants: One hundred sixty-seven undergraduates (M = 18.93 years, SD = 1.02) participated in the current study. Methods: Participants completed an anonymous questionnaire reporting their perceptions of their parental attachment relationships, emotional reactivity, difficulty regulating emotions, and disordered eating. Results: Analyses using structural equation modeling indicated that difficulty regulating emotions mediated the relationship between maternal attachment and disordered eating, but not between paternal attachment and disordered eating. Emotional reactivity did not emerge as a significant mediator. Conclusions: These findings suggest that maternal attachment relationships may be associated with difficulty regulating emotions in adulthood, which may in turn impact disordered eating attitudes and behaviors.

The Relationship Between Child Maltreatment and Dispositional Envy and the Mediating Effect of Self-Esteem and Social Support in Young Adults.

As child maltreatment is a common social problem worldwide, the present study explores the relationship between child maltreatment and dispositional envy and the mediating effects of self-esteem and social support in this relationship. Data were collected from 426 Chinese college students (M age = 20.63, SD = 1.85), using the Child Abuse Scale, Dispositional Envy Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Multi-Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The results show that self-esteem plays a partially mediating role in the association between child maltreatment and envy. In addition, sequential mediation analyses have further revealed the maltreatment effect of envy, through social support and self-esteem. Further, a multiple-group analysis has shown that men with high child maltreatment scores tend to have lower levels of social support than women. These results provide an important reference for revealing how maltreatment early in life effects social emotion in adulthood, particularly dispositional envy. They may provide a valuable resource for psychological interventions targeting people of both genders who are victims of child maltreatment.

Internet Game Addiction, Depression, and Escape From Negative Emotions in Adulthood: A Nationwide Community Sample of Korea.

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between adult Internet game addiction (IGA) and mental disorders. A total of 1401 adults aged between 18 and 74 years participated in this study. The IGA group had significantly younger patients, and it showed a higher proportion of unmarried and unemployed adults, and higher rates of suicidal ideation, plan, and attempt than the non-IGA group. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that IGA was significantly associated with major depressive disorder, dysthymia, and depressive disorders adjusting for all variables. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score was significantly higher in the IGA group than in the non-IGA group for both young adults and middle groups. "Escape from negative emotions like nervousness, sadness, and anger" was the only significant item associated with depression among symptoms of IGA. This study suggests that adults with IGA and depression may use Internet games to escape from negative emotions.

Developmental programming of happiness.

Being born at an extremely low birth weight (ELBW; <1,000 grams) is presumed to reflect a suboptimal intrauterine environment and thus presents an opportunity for examining developmental programming hypotheses. Interfacing prenatal programming and differential susceptibility hypotheses, we tested whether individuals with ELBW in different childhood rearing environments showed different attention biases to positive and negative facial emotions in adulthood. Using the oldest known, prospectively followed cohort of ELBW survivors, we found that relative to normal birth weight controls (NBW; >2,500 grams), ELBW survivors displayed the highest and lowest attention bias to happy faces at age 30-35, depending on whether their total family income at age 8 was relatively low (environmental match) or high (environmental mismatch), respectively. This bias to happy faces was associated with a reduced likelihood of emotional problems. Findings suggest that differential susceptibility to positive emotions may be prenatally programmed, with effects lasting into adulthood. We discuss implications for integrating prenatal programming and differential susceptibility hypotheses, and the developmental origins of postnatal plasticity and resilience.

Perceptions of emotion and age among younger, midlife, and older adults

ABSTRACTObjectives: Older adults report greater emotional well-being than younger persons, yet negative stereotypes about aging are pervasive. Little is known about age group perceptions of emotion in adulthood, particularly for familiar persons. Thus, this project determined perceptions of general affect in familiar younger and older adults.Method: In two studies, participants (Study 1, younger adult n = 123, older adult n = 43; Study 2, younger adult n = 34, midlife adult n = 41, older adult n = 16) provided self-report data about their affect in general, as well as reported on the affect of a familiar younger person (aged 18--34) and a familiar older person (aged 65 or older). Emotion scales assessed high- and low-arousal positive and negative affect.Results: Results suggest a less favorable perception of emotion experiences of older adults compared to younger adults. Specifically, participants of all age groups rated older adults as having lower positive emotions and higher negative emotions than is found in self-report data.Conclusion: Perceptions of emotion in older adulthood reflect stereotypes of negative functioning. Older adult participants were not immune to holding negative views about older adults. Negative perceptions about emotion experiences in later life may be detrimental to the physical and mental health of older adults.

Sex differences, learning flexibility, and striatal dopamine D1 and D2 following adolescent drug exposure in rats

Corticostriatal circuitry supports flexible reward learning and emotional behavior from the critical neurodevelopmental stage of adolescence through adulthood. It is still poorly understood how prescription drug exposure in adolescence may impact these outcomes in the long-term. We studied adolescent methylphenidate (MPH) and fluoxetine (FLX) exposure in rats and their impact on learning and emotion in adulthood. In Experiment 1, male and female rats were administered MPH, FLX, or saline (SAL), and compared with methamphetamine (mAMPH) treatment beginning in postnatal day (PND) 37. The rats were then tested on discrimination and reversal learning in adulthood. In Experiment 2, animals were administered MPH or SAL also beginning in PND 37 and later tested in adulthood for anxiety levels. In Experiment 3, we analyzed striatal dopamine D1 and D2 receptor expression in adulthood following either extensive learning (after Experiment 1) or more brief emotional measures (after Experiment 2). We found sex differences in discrimination learning and attenuated reversal learning after MPH and only sex differences in adulthood anxiety. In learners, there was enhanced striatal D1, but not D2, after either adolescent MPH or mAMPH. Lastly, also in learners, there was a sex x treatment group interaction for D2, but not D1, driven by the MPH-pretreated females, who expressed significantly higher D2 levels compared to SAL. These results show enduring effects of adolescent MPH on reversal learning in rats. Developmental psychostimulant exposure may interact with learning to enhance D1 expression in adulthood, and affect D2 expression in a sex-dependent manner.

Emotion and Self‐Cutting: Narratives of Service Users Referred to a Personality Disorder Service

Theory and existing research suggest that emotion regulation capabilities develop during the formative years. Emotion dysregulation is associated with psychological distress and may contribute towards difficulties such as personality disorder and self-harm. This study aimed to explore the contexts in which individuals' narratives of emotional experience and self-harm developed. Eight participants who cut themselves and were seen by a personality disorder service were recruited. Semi-structured interviews were carried out, and interview transcripts were analysed using a narrative approach. Five temporal themes were generated: 'Seen and not heard', 'A big release … to get rid of all the pain and hurt', 'A vicious circle', 'A different world' and 'Trying to turn my life around'. The findings highlight how early experiences may have led participants to perceive emotions as unacceptable and subsequently suppress emotion in adulthood. Suppression of emotions appeared to be related to appraisals of emotions and to secondary emotional distress. Furthermore, cutting was linked to suppression of emotions as well as negative self-beliefs formed during childhood and reinforced through subsequent experiences. The study emphasizes the need for therapeutic approaches to focus on emotions when working with individuals who self-cut. Furthermore, the findings indicate the need for compassionate and validating health services that may help service users develop more optimistic future narratives.

The Health Significance of Positive Emotions in Adulthood and Later Life

A growing body of literature supports a link between positive emotions and health in older adults. In this article, we review evidence of the effects of positive emotions on downstream biological processes and meaningful clinical endpoints, such as adult morbidity and mortality. We then present relevant predictions from lifespan theories that suggest changes in cognition and motivation may play an important role in explaining how positive emotions are well maintained in old age, despite pervasive declines in cognitive processes. We conclude by discussing how the application of psychological theory can inform greater understanding of the adaptive significance of positive emotions in adulthood and later life.

Age and Emotion in Adulthood

Evidence suggests that positive affect rises from youth through young and then older adulthood, but may decline after one's mid-70s. Negative affect appears to decrease steadily from early adulthood to older adulthood, but this decline may taper off in the oldest years. The relationship between age and affect in adulthood is further complicated by the effects of moderators, such as extraversion and marital status. Despite these complexities, recent empirical studies and current theory have furthered the understanding of age and affect in adulthood, although important questions remain.