Emotions In Older Adults Research Articles

The Effect of Animal-Assisted Therapy on the Emotions of Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment

The Effect of Animal-Assisted Therapy on the Emotions of Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Age-related differences in subjective and physiological emotion evoked by immersion in natural and social virtual environments

Age-related changes in emotional processing are complex, with a bias toward positive information. However, the impact of aging on emotional responses in positive everyday situations remains unclear. Virtual Reality (VR) has emerged as a promising tool for investigating emotional processing, offering a unique balance between ecological validity and experimental control. Yet, limited evidence exists regarding its efficacy to elicit positive emotions in older adults. Our study aimed to explore age-related differences in positive emotional responses to immersion in both social and nonsocial virtual emotional environments. We exposed 34 younger adults and 24 older adults to natural and social 360-degree video content through a low immersive computer screen and a highly immersive Head-Mounted Display, while recording participants' physiological reactions. Participants also provided self-report of their emotions and sense of presence. The findings support VR’s efficacy in eliciting positive emotions in both younger and older adults, with age-related differences in emotional responses influenced by the specific video content rather than immersion level. These findings underscore the potential of VR as a valuable tool for examining age-related differences in emotional responses and developing VR applications to enhance emotional wellbeing across diverse user populations.

"Wellbeing and Emotions in Older Adults: An Investigation at the Permanent University of Adults in Alicante (Spain)"

"Wellbeing and Emotions in Older Adults: An Investigation at the Permanent University of Adults in Alicante (Spain)"

The Impact of ICT Usage on Older Adults Residing in Institutional Settings Amidst the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic - Enhancing Emotional Experiences

The proportion of older adults is increasing every year in Slovenia and in developed countries. Older adults living in institutional settings have been faced with several measures intended for the containment of the spread of the coronavirus disease that have increased social isolation and feelings of loneliness. ICT has positive effects on the quality of life and well-being of older people as it mitigates the effects of social isolation. With the research, we wanted to find out how measures to contain the coronavirus disease affect the self-assessment of the experiencing of emotions in older adults living in an institutional environment. We chose a quantitative research method. 128 older adults who met the inclusion criteria participated in a non-random, casual sample. We collected the data using a questionnaire. We used a standardised and validated SPANE positive and negative emotion scale. Based on the research, we conclude that there are statistically significant differences with a risk of less than 5% between male and female residents in experiencing two positive emotions: kindness (p = 0.011) and happiness (p = 0.044) and also for two negative emotions: sadness (p = 0.001) and anger (p = 0.039). In the self-assessment of the experience of negative emotions among residents living in an institutional environment, we note that negative emotions among residents in the age groups up to 80 years and 81 years and older differ statistically significantly in one negative emotion, i.e., sadness (p = 0.002). We do not find statistically significant differences between religious and non-religious residents. Health and social workers working with the older adults need to pay more attention to the use of ICT in the future, because we find that the use of ICT has different effects on the experience of emotions.

Big smile, small self: Awe walks promote prosocial positive emotions in older adults.

Aging into later life is often accompanied by social disconnection, anxiety, and sadness. Negative emotions are self-focused states with detrimental effects on aging and longevity. Awe-a positive emotion elicited when in the presence of vast things not immediately understood-reduces self-focus, promotes social connection, and fosters prosocial actions by encouraging a "small self." We investigated the emotional benefits of a novel "awe walk" intervention in healthy older adults. Sixty participants took weekly 15-min outdoor walks for 8 weeks; participants were randomly assigned to an awe walk group, which oriented them to experience awe during their walks, or to a control walk group. Participants took photographs of themselves during each walk and rated their emotional experience. Each day, they reported on their daily emotional experience outside of the walk context. Participants also completed pre- and postintervention measures of anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction. Compared with participants who took control walks, those who took awe walks experienced greater awe during their walks and exhibited an increasingly "small self" in their photographs over time. They reported greater joy and prosocial positive emotions during their walks and displayed increasing smile intensity over the study. Outside of the walk context, participants who took awe walks reported greater increases in daily prosocial positive emotions and greater decreases in daily distress over time. Postintervention anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction did not change from baseline in either group. These results suggest cultivating awe enhances positive emotions that foster social connection and diminishes negative emotions that hasten decline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Executive function predict the quality of life and negative emotion in older adults with diabetes: A longitudinal study

AimsTo investigate the influence of executive function (EF) on current and future quality of life (QoL) and negative emotion (NE) in older adults with diabetes. MethodsA total of 128 older adults with diabetes were recruited. Independent variables (demographic information, health and medical conditions, cognitive function, life function) were collected in the first year. Dependent variables (QoL and NE) were collected for 3 years. Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis and stepwise multiple linear regression analysis were performed to identify the predictors of QoL and NE. ResultsEF was the strongest predictor for overall QoL and NE in all 3 years, and accounted for 23.0–36.2% and 11.1–17.1% of the variance, respectively. The second strongest predictor for overall QoL in all 3 years was pain interference, which accounted for 3.2–5.8% of the variance. Pain interference was also the second strongest predictor for NE in the second year, accounting for 5.5% of the variance. ConclusionsThe present study revealed that EF is more predictive than pain for current and future QoL and NE in older adults with diabetes. We recommend that EF be included as an indicator for diabetes surveillance, and that prevention of EF decline be a part of diabetes management plans.

A Tale of Two Emotions: The Diverging Salience and Health Consequences of Calmness and Excitement in Old Age

Using two studies, we examined the late life prevalence and health consequences of discrete positive emotions posited to motivate rest and recovery (calmness) or pursuit of novelty and stimulation (excitement). Study 1 assessed the salience of these discrete emotions in older adults (n=73, Mage=73) relative to younger adults (n=73, Mage=23) over a one-week period. Multilevel models showed that older (vs. younger) adults reported higher calmness and lower excitement. Study 2 examined the longitudinal health consequences of calmness and excitement in old age (n=336, Mage=75), as moderated by perceived control. Multilevel growth models showed that calmness, but not excitement, buffered against 10-year declines in psychological well-being (perceived stress, depressive symptoms) and physical health (physical symptoms, chronic conditions) for older adults with low perceived control. Results suggest that positive emotions with disparate motivational functions become more (calmness) or less (excitement) salient and have diverging implications for health in old age.

Supplemental Material for Big Smile, Small Self: Awe Walks Promote Prosocial Positive Emotions in Older Adults

Supplemental Material for Big Smile, Small Self: Awe Walks Promote Prosocial Positive Emotions in Older Adults

Family functioning and negative emotions in older adults: the mediating role of self-integrity and the moderating role of self-stereotyping

Objectives The objective of this study was to examine a possible mediator role of self-integrity and a moderator role of self-stereotyping in the relationship between family functioning and negative emotions in older adults. Method A total of 1186 older adults participated in the current study. They completed measures related to family functioning, self-integrity, self-stereotyping, depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Results Older adults with family dysfunction experienced more negative emotions than those with healthy family functioning, a finding which could be explained by the levels of self-integrity. Older adults with high levels of self-stereotyping, unhealthy family functioning, and low self-integrity were significantly more likely to be depressed and anxious than those with low levels of self-stereotyping. Conclusion Family functioning negatively predicted negative emotions, self-integrity mediated the link between family functioning and negative emotions, and self-stereotyping moderated the direct and indirect effects of family functioning on depression and anxiety via self-integrity.

The impact of emotional congruent and emotional neutral context on recognizing complex emotions in older adults

ABSTRACT Adding context information has been shown to attenuate the age-related decline of emotion recognition. Specifically, older adults might benefit from emotional congruent context information due to their greater social knowledge. Contrary, emotional neutral context information might impair older adults’ performance more due to their decline of inhibitory abilities. Our aim was to examine the age-related decline of complex emotion recognition across three context conditions (emotional congruent, emotional neutral and no context). We hypothesized that emotional congruent context will help older adults to perform at the same level as younger adults and expected worse performance of older adults in the emotional neutral and no context conditions. Twenty-eight older and 28 younger adults watched film clips with complex emotions preceded by a fixation cross (no context), emotional congruent context or emotional neutral context. Emotional neutral context affected older adults’ performance more negatively than young adults’, whereas emotional congruent improved performance of both young and older adults to a similar extent. Results suggest that emotional congruent context does not eliminate the overall age-related deficit in complex emotion recognition. In contrast, this deficit might be intensified by emotional neutral context.

<p>Physical, cognitive, behavior, and negative emotion in older adults living in China: a national population-based survey</p>

BackgroundPrevious studies have concentrated on predictors of exceptional longevity, however, relevant studies have rarely extended to other fields of functioning. To date, little is known about what contributes to the experience of negative emotion in a very old population.ObjectiveWe aimed to provide a comprehensive key domain of functioning, including physical, cognitive, behavior, and negative emotion in older adults (OAs), followed by determination of predictors of negative emotion.MethodsData were collected from a nationally representative sample of 2570 Chinese OAs (aged 60 and above) from the 2014 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Physical function was assessed using activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) measures. Cognitive function was assessed by the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (mMMSE). Participants’ behavior included smoking, drinking, exercise, physical labor, and social activities. Negative emotion was assessed using four items on affective experiences to create an index of emotional well-being. The associations between various covariates and multiple health outcomes were examined using Pearson’s correlation. Multiple linear regressions were established to verify significant variables associated with respondents’ negative emotion.ResultsThe mean age was 80.20 years (SD=8.60). The mean ADL total score of the sample was 17.78 (SD=0.89), mean IADL total score was 21.93 (SD=3.69), the mean mMMSE total score was 21.63 (SD=2.23), the mean negative emotion total score was 8.89 (SD=2.64). Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that negative emotion was associated with self-perceived low economic status, poor self-rated health condition, poor sleep quality, low IADL function, less regular exercising, living in rural, and being female.ConclusionLimited physical functioning and social resources in rural residence may restrict the outpouring of emotion in OAs. Nevertheless, further intensive studies are warranted to provide guidance for the development of better living environment for this elderly population.

Generativity and Positive Emotion in Older Adults: Mediation of Achievement and Altruism Goal Attainment Across Three Cultures

Generativity, the concern for guiding the next generation, is associated with both agentic (self-orientated) and communal (others-orientated) motives. However, the role of agency-communion goal attainment has not been studied with reference to positive emotion across cultures. The present study examined the mediation effects of achievement and altruism goal attainment between generative concern and positive emotion across three diverse cultures. We used achievement goal attainment to measure agentic goal fulfillment and altruism goal attainment to measure communal goal fulfillment. We tested the mediation effects of achievement and altruism goal attainment were tested with a total of six hundred and twenty-three older adults from the Czech Republic, Germany and Hong Kong. Multi-group structural equation modeling was conducted to test whether the hypothesized model was equivalent across the three cultures. Findings suggested that achievement goal attainment mediated between generative concern and positive emotion for all three countries. However, altruism goal attainment mediated the association between generative concern and positive emotion only in Hong Kong but not in the other two countries. While achievement goal attainment may play a significant role in the association between generativity concern and positive emotion across three cultures, the present study also highlights possible cultural variation on the mediation of altruism goal attainment. Findings underscored the need for further developing a model of generativity and well-being that takes into account goal attainment in diverse cultural contexts.

The experience of music emotion in older adults with hearing loss and hearing aids

The current study examined the effect of hearing loss and hearing aids in older adults on the experience of music emotion. Fifty-four participants aged 60 and above were recruited, including 18 with normal hearing (NH), 18 with hearing impairment (HI), and 18 with hearing impairment who use hearing aids (HA). Arousal ratings and skin conductance responses were obtained from participants across 24 extracts of film music that were previously validated as conveying one of four emotions: happy, sad, fearful, and tender. These four emotions represent a crossing of arousal (high and low) and valence (positive and negative). For each group, an “arousal range” was calculated as the average arousal ratings of happy and fearful excerpts, minus the average arousal ratings of tender and sad excerpts. A similar scheme was used for each group to determine a “skin conductance range”. For negatively-valenced music, groups did not differ with regard to arousal of skin conductance. For positively valenced music, NH and HA yielded a larger arousal range than did HI. A similar pattern emerged from the analysis of skin conductance range. Results will be discussed with regard to the acoustic cues to emotion in music and signal processing methods in hearing aids.

Emotional Differences in Young and Older Adults: Films as Mood Induction Procedure.

Film clips are proven to be one of the most efficient techniques in emotional induction. However, there is scant literature on the effect of this procedure in older adults and, specifically, the effect of using different positive stimuli. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine emotional differences between young and older adults and to know how a set of film clips works as mood induction procedure in older adults, especially, when trying to elicit attachment-related emotions. To this end, we use this procedure to analyze differences in subjective emotional response between young and older adults. A sample of 57 older adults and 83 young adults watched a film set previously validated in young population. Their responses were studied in an individual laboratory session to elicit 6 target emotions (disgust, fear, sadness, anger, amusement and tenderness) and neutral state. Self-reported emotional experience was measured using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). Our results show that film clips are capable of evoking positive and negative emotions in older adults. Furthermore, older adults experienced more intensely negative emotions than young adults, especially in response to disgust and fear clips. They also reported higher arousal than young adults, especially in the case of sadness, anger and tenderness clips. Nevertheless, the older adults recovered more easily from the effects of the emotion induction. The young adults reported higher arousal ratings than older adults in response to amusement film clips. On the other hand, this study reflects the importance of controlling the baseline state to study the real strength of mood induction. Overall, current data suggests significant differences occur in emotional response in adult age and that film clips are an effective tool for studying positive and negative emotions in aging research.

Usability study and pilot validation of a computer-based emotion recognition test for older adults with Alzheimer's disease and amnestic mild cognitive impairment

ABSTRACTObjectives: This study aimed to carry out a pilot validation of Affect-GRADIOR, a computer-based emotion recognition test, with older adults. The study evaluated its usability, reliability and validity for the screening of people with Alzheimer´s disease (AD) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI).Methods: The test was administered to 212 participants (76.37 ± 6.20 years) classified into three groups (healthy controls, n = 69; AD, n = 84; and aMCI, n = 59) on the basis of detailed neurological, neuropsychological, laboratory and neuro-imaging evidence. Data on usability were collected by means of a questionnaire and automated evaluation.Results: The validated test comprised 53 stimuli and 7 practice items (one per emotion). Participants reported that Affect-GRADIOR was accessible and user-friendly. It had high internal consistency (ordinal Cronbach's α = 0.96). Test-retest reliability correlations were significant and robust (r = 0.840, p < 0.001). Exploratory factor analysis supported a seven-factor model of the emotions assessed (neutral expression, happiness, surprise, disgust, sadness, anger and fear). Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses suggested that the test discriminated healthy older adults from AD and aMCI cases. Correct answer score improved MMSE predictive power from 0.547 to 0.560 (Cox & Snell R2, p = 0.012), and Affect-GRADIOR speed of processing score improved MMSE predictive power from 0.547 to 0.563 (Cox & Snell R2, p = 0.010).Conclusions: Affect-GRADIOR is a valid instrument for the assessment of the facial recognition of emotions in older adults with and without cognitive impairment.

The level of cognitive function and recognition of emotions in older adults.

BackgroundThe association between cognitive decline and the ability to recognise emotions in interpersonal communication is not well understood. We aimed to investigate the association between cognitive function and the ability to recognise emotions in other people’s facial expressions across the full continuum of cognitive capacity.MethodsCross-sectional analysis of 4039 participants (3016 men, 1023 women aged 59 to 82 years) in the Whitehall II study. Cognitive function was assessed using a 30-item Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), further classified into 8 groups: 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, and <24 (possible dementia) MMSE points. The Facial Expression Recognition Task (FERT) was used to examine recognition of anger, fear, disgust, sadness, and happiness.ResultsThe multivariable adjusted difference in the percentage of accurate recognition between the highest and lowest MMSE group was 14.9 (95%CI, 11.1–18.7) for anger, 15.5 (11.9–19.2) for fear, 18.5 (15.2–21.8) for disgust, 11.6 (7.3–16.0) for sadness, and 6.3 (3.1–9.4) for happiness. However, recognition of several emotions was reduced already after 1 to 2-point reduction in MMSE and with further points down in MMSE, the recognition worsened at an accelerated rate.ConclusionsThe ability to recognize emotion in facial expressions is affected at an early stage of cognitive impairment and might decline at an accelerated rate with the deterioration of cognitive function. Accurate recognition of happiness seems to be less affected by a severe decline in cognitive performance than recognition of negatively valued emotions.

Role of Emotion and Cognition on Age Differences in the Framing Effect.

Framing effect studies indicate that individuals are risk averse for decisions framed as gains but risk-seeking for decisions framed as losses. Findings of age-related differences in susceptibility to framing are mixed. In the current study, we examined emotional arousal in two decision tasks (life saving vs. money gambling) to evaluate the effects of emotion on age differences in the framing effect. When cognitive abilities and styles were controlled, there was a framing effect in the younger group in the life-saving task, a high-emotional arousal task, while older adults did not display this classic framing effect pattern. They showed risk aversion in both positive and negative framing. Age differences existed in the framing effect. Conversely, younger and older adults in the money-gambling task both displayed the framing effect; there was no age difference. When the cognitive abilities were not controlled, the pattern of results in the high-emotional arousal task remained unchanged, while greater framing effects were found, from the perspective of effect size, for older than younger adults in the low-emotional arousal task. Limited cognitive resources would not hamper older adults' performances when their emotional arousal was high. However, older adults with low-level emotional arousal were more susceptible than younger adults to framing because of declining cognitive capacities. This implied the importance of emotion in older adults' decision making and supported the selective engagement hypothesis.

Cognitive Control of Emotion in Older Adults: A Review.

Prior studies have found that compared to younger peers, older adults become happier and regulate emotions better as they age. However, research has also demonstrated that successful emotion regulation relies on well-functioning neural networks including the cognitive control network (CCN) and default mode network (DMN), which include brain structures that tend to deteriorate in the aging process. This dichotomy of improved stress management and emotion control in conjunction with deterioration in relevant neural networks and structures is interesting and worthy of further discussion and study.

Heightened Emotional States Increase Susceptibility to Fraud in Older Adults

We examined the effects of both emotional arousal (excitement, anger, neutral) and age (older adults, younger adults) on ratings of advertisement credulity and purchase intention. Inducing both high-arousal positive and high-arousal negative emotions in older adults increased their susceptibility to misleading advertisements, leading them to indicate greater intention to purchase the falsely advertised items. arousal group. When we examined younger adults separately, we did not find these same effects. Implications are discussed.

Disentangling cognition and emotion in older adults: the role of cognitive control and mental health in emotional conflict adaptation.

Recent research suggests cognition has a bidirectional relationship with emotional processing in older adults, yet the relationship is still poorly understood. We aimed to examine a potential relationship between late-life cognitive function, mental health symptoms, and emotional conflict adaptation. We hypothesized that worse cognitive control abilities would be associated with poorer emotional conflict adaptation. We further hypothesized that a higher severity of mental health symptoms would be associated with poorer emotional conflict adaptation. Participants included 83 cognitively normal community-dwelling older adults who completed a targeted mental health and cognitive battery, and emotion and gender conflict-adaptation tasks. Consistent with our hypothesis, poorer performance on components of cognitive control, specifically attention and working memory, was associated with poorer emotional conflict adaptation. This association with attention and working memory was not observed in the non-affective-based gender conflict adaptation task. Mental health symptoms did not predict emotional conflict adaptation, nor did performance on other cognitive measures. Our findings suggest that emotion conflict adaptation is disrupted in older individuals who have poorer attention and working memory. Components of cognitive control may therefore be an important potential source of inter-individual differences in late-life emotion regulation and cognitive affective deficits. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.