Socioemotional Selectivity Theory Research Articles

Health Information Sharing via Social Network Sites (SNSs): Integrating Social Support and Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

ABSTRACT Despite its prevalence, research on health information sharing via social network sites (SNSs) is mostly descriptive and often lacks a coherent theoretical framework. By integrating social support and socioemotional selectivity theory, the present study takes a uses and gratifications approach to examining what factors affected health information sharing via WeChat, the most widely used SNS in China. Results of an online survey (N = 519) show that emotional and informational support provisions both predicted health information sharing via WeChat. In addition, age moderated the effects of both support provision. While the relationship between emotional support provision and health information sharing was stronger among older adults, the effect of informational support provision was marginally significantly stronger among younger adults. These findings provide additional understanding of health information sharing via SNSs by revealing its emotional meaning and demonstrating different sharing motivations in different age groups, which offers implications on health information design, dissemination, and discussions in different groups.

How Chinese children's filial piety beliefs affect their parents’ life satisfaction and loneliness

Filial piety (or xiao) is a unique Chinese culture that affects older adults' life satisfaction and loneliness. Guided by the dual filial piety model and socioemotional selectivity theory, this study explores how adult children's filial piety beliefs affect their parent's life satisfaction and loneliness. A total of 350 pairs of parent-child data were collected through a parent-child pair design. Results show that emotional support provided by adult children and emotional support perceived by parents (i.e., the transmission of emotional support) fully mediated the relationship between children's reciprocal filial piety belief and parents' life satisfaction and loneliness, and partially mediated the relationship between children's authoritarian filial piety belief and parents' life satisfaction and loneliness. However, instrumental support provided by adult children and instrumental support perceived by parents (i.e., the transmission of instrumental support) had no such mediating roles in the relationship between adult children's filial piety beliefs and parents' life satisfaction and loneliness. This finding suggests that to improve parental well-being, adult Chinese children should cultivate their filial piety and pay close attention to their parents' emotional needs.

Aging and the Perception of Affective and Linguistic Prosody.

Investigations of affective prosodic processing have demonstrated a decline with aging. It is unclear, however, whether this decline affects all or specific emotions. Also, little is known about the ability of syntactic resolution ambiguity with the use of prosody in aging. Twenty older (age range = 70-75) and 20 younger adults (age range = 20-25) performed an affective (happiness, neutrality, sadness, surprise, fear, and anger) and a linguistic (subject/object ambiguities) prosody task. Relative to young participants, older participants faced difficulty decoding affective prosody, particularly negative emotions, and syntactic prosody, in particular the subject reading condition. A marginally positive correlation was found between the affective and syntactic prosody tasks in the group of older individuals, but no gender differences in either prosodic task. The findings of the affective prosody task are discussed under the prism of the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, whereas general parsing strategies can account for the preference for the object reading condition.

Socializing Targets of Older Adults’ SNS Use: Social Strain Mediates the Relations Between Older Adults’ SNS Use With Friends and Well-Being Outcomes

Studies have yielded mixed findings regarding the relation between older adults’ social networking site (SNS) use and well-being. Drawing on socioemotional selectivity theory, we sought to examine whether older adults’ SNS use with different socializing targets (i.e., family vs friends) would differentially predict global, social, and mental well-being outcomes indexed by life satisfaction, loneliness, and depressive symptoms, respectively. Furthermore, we examined whether social support and social strain would mediate, in parallel, the relations between SNS use and well-being outcomes. We recruited healthy, community-dwelling older adults (ages 60–93 years, N = 69). Using the PROCESS macro, we found that SNS use with friends, but not family, predicted poorer life satisfaction and greater loneliness via increased social strain. However, SNS use with neither friends nor family was linked to depressive symptoms. Furthermore, social support failed to account for the relations between SNS use and well-being indices. These results held when we controlled for a host of covariates—age, gender, education level, income, marital status, and overall physical health. Our findings reconcile disparate findings in the literature by elucidating that older adults’ SNS use with different socializing targets asymmetrically predicts life satisfaction and loneliness via varying degrees of perceived social strain.

Spiritual support and well-being in later life: revisiting the role of god-mediated control

ABSTRACT One central finding of the religion-health literature which has stood the test of time is that participation in religious congregations is linked with a vast array of health and mental health benefits in later life. In this study, we probe why this might be so by considering the role of spiritual support, defined as assistance given by fellow church members with the purpose of bolstering the religious beliefs and behaviors of the recipient. Using longitudinal data from a sample of older adults from the 2001–2004 Religion, Health, and Aging Study, results from lagged dependent variable models suggest that greater spiritual support at baseline was associated with lower depression, an association which was partially explained by perceptions of God-mediated control (viewing God as a collaborative partner). We situate our findings within socioemotional selectivity theory and gerotranscendence theory and offer practical implications of our results for religious or pastoral clinicians.

Parenting an Autistic Child Is Not Associated With the Amount of Facial Emotion Information Needed to Perceive Happiness or Sadness From Faces

One common feature of autism is “flat affect:” Many autistic people do not facially express emotion as intensely as non-autistic people. Although it can be difficult for a casual acquaintance or stranger to infer what someone with flat affect is feeling, some mothers of autistic children report learning to identify their children’s emotions from limited facial emotion information. We investigated whether this parenting experience is associated with the point at which mothers perceive happiness and sadness on faces of individuals other than their children. We used two tasks where faces of strangers morphed from a neutral expression to peak happiness and peak sadness; we measured the point at which mothers first perceived happiness and sadness in these morphs. In samples that were overwhelmingly North American, White, and highly educated, mothers of autistic children (n = 24), mothers of non-autistic children (n = 24) and age-matched non-mothers (n = 24) did not differ in the point at which they perceived happiness and sadness. The heightened sensitivity some mothers of autistic children report in perceiving emotion on their children’s faces may not play a role in how they perceive emotion on other people’s faces, at least in the case of happiness and sadness. Interestingly, however, the three groups of middle-aged women perceived happiness (but not sadness) at an earlier point than a group of young adult women attending a U.S. university (n = 151), a finding that is consistent with socio-emotional selectivity theory.

Age-Related Enhancements in Positive Emotionality across The Life Span: Structural Equation Modeling of Brain and Behavior.

Aging is associated with a bias in attention and memories toward positive and away from negative emotional content. In addition, emotion regulation appears to improve with age, despite concomitant widespread cognitive decline coupled with gray matter volume loss in cortical and subcortical regions thought to subserve emotion regulation. Here, we address this emotion-aging paradox using the behavioral data of an emotion regulation task from a population-derived, male and female, human sample (CamCAN) and use structural equation modeling together with multivariate analysis of structural MRI images of the same sample to investigate brain–behavior relationships. In a series of measurement models, we show the relationship between age and emotionality is best explained by a four-factor model, compared with single and hierarchical factor models. These four latent factors are interpreted as Basal Negative Affect, Positive Reactivity, Negative Reactivity and Positive Regulation (upregulating positive emotion to negative content). Increasing age uniquely contributes to increased Basal Negative Affect, Positive Reactivity, and Positive Regulation, but not Negative Reactivity. Furthermore, we show gray matter volumes, namely in the bilateral frontal operculum, medial frontal gyrus, bilateral hippocampal complex, bilateral middle temporal gyri, and bilateral angular gyrus, are distinctly related to these four latent factors. Finally, we show that a subset of these brain–behavior relationships remain significant when accounting for age and demographic data. Our results support the notion of an age-related increase in positivity and are interpreted in the context of the socioemotional selectivity theory of improved emotion regulation in older age.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Aging is associated with a paradoxical increase in well-being and improved emotion regulation despite widespread cognitive decline and gray matter volume loss in neural regions that underlie emotion regulation. Using a population-derived sample, we test the theories behind this emotion/aging paradox with an emotion regulation task and structural MRI data. We report robust age-related increases in positivity across the life span and show structural neural integrity influences this relationship with increasing age. Several brain–behavior relationships remained unaffected by age and may represent empirically derived neural markers to explore the paradox of increased well-being in old age. The results support the predictions of socioemotional selectivity theory of improved emotion regulation in older age and challenge the amygdala-focused neural predictions of the aging brain model.

Quality of experience in prosocial activity and intent to continue: An experience sampling study.

According to socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), older adults prefer activities that provide immediate experiential rewards-specifically, emotionally meaningful experiences-but research is needed to establish the posited association. We conducted an experience sampling study of older adults intensively serving formal prosocial programs, which can offer them meaningful social roles, N = 165; Mage (SD) = 71.13 (5.70), range = 60-88. Consistent with SST, intention to continue serving one's prosocial program in the future was positively associated with emotional meaning (EM) experienced within the prosocial-program activity. This association was not amplified by age within this older group. Instead, dispositional EM interacted negatively with age (stronger, positive relationship with future intentions among younger old). Our findings illuminate the possibility that socioemotional selection based on experiences during prosocial-program activity may contribute to the continuity of specific prosocial endeavors in late adulthood. Future research should assess the EM-prosocial endeavors relationship across a wider age range. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Not "The More The Merrier": Diminishing Returns to Daily Face-To-Face Social Interaction Frequency for Well-Being in Older Age.

While being socially active is beneficial for well-being in older age, it is unclear whether effects of social interactions on well-being indicate "the more the merrier" or if they have limits as individuals socialize more or less across different days. This study addressed diminishing returns to social interaction frequency for well-being. We examined data from an event-contingent experience sampling study from 116 Swiss older adults (65 to 94 years old) over 21 days. Participants reported face-to-face social interactions once they occurred and daily well-being (i.e., positive and negative affect, loneliness) in the evenings. On average, participants had 2.09 face-to-face social interactions per day. Linear and quadratic effects from multilevel models conjointly indicated that a higher number of daily social interactions was associated with higher daily positive affect and lower daily negative affect and loneliness, but that well-being reached its peak at 2-3 times above participants' typical daily interaction frequency. Once these numbers were surpassed, the benefit of additional social interactions diminished. Additionally, participants who typically had fewer social interactions, were unmarried, lived alone, and had more health conditions showed stronger associations between daily social interaction frequency and well-being. Our findings suggest the benefits of social interactions on well-being exhibit diminishing returns. Social interactions may play a bigger role in older adults with less satiation for desire to belong and a limited future time perspective. We discuss these findings in terms of the belongingness hypothesis and the socioemotional selectivity theory.

The link between HRD professionals’ social capital and career adaptability: a moderated mediation analysis of social network

PurposeFrom a social capital perspective, this study aims to shed light on the link between social capital and career adaptability by focusing on how social connections and interactions shape and nurture career adaptability. Drawing on socioemotional selectivity theory, the authors further examined the critical moderating role of age on the above relationship.Design/methodology/approachSurvey responses from 208 HRD professionals were analyzed via a moderated mediation analysis.FindingsThe results showed that there is a positive relationship between social capital (network size and intimate network) and career adaptability; frequent interaction increases intimacy, in turn enhancing career adaptability; and the indirect effect of social capital on career adaptability (via intimate network) is stronger when the employee is younger.Originality/valueThe most novel theoretical contribution of this study is that the authors lend empirical support to the connection between social capital and career adaptability moderated by age. The study also contributes to understanding how core aspects of social capital are inter-related each other and have directional relationships.

Self-disclosure during the COVID-19 emergency: Effects of narcissism traits, time perspective, virtual presence, and hedonic gratification

During the COVID-19 emergency, people must face the invisible threat of uncertain death and comply with social distancing and other related protective measures. But social networking sites (SNSs) like WeChat have emerged as alternative contexts where people can maintain self and obtain gratification, despite the disclosure of self to others often being a challenging issue. To examine the effect of personality factors on people's self-disclosure on SNSs, we develop a model based on the time perspective theory and the socioemotional selectivity theory. We suggest that people's narcissism traits and two types of time perspective (i.e. future and present-hedonistic) have positive effects on their self-disclosure. In addition, we propose that virtual presence and hedonic gratification mediate the effects of both future time perspective and present-hedonistic time perspective. We obtain a sample of 516 WeChat users in China and take ex-ante and post-hoc measures to deal with common method variance. By means of partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) methods, we validate both our measurement model and the structural model, so we confirm all the hypothesized causal paths in the proposed model. Our study broadens the boundaries of the time perspective theory and the socioemotional selectivity theory, and offers new insights for addressing some of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Connecting in-game performance, need satisfaction, and psychological well-being: A comparison of older and younger players in World of Tanks

The need satisfaction and psychological benefits derived from gameplay are generally understudied for older video game players. This study connects the Self-Determination Theory, Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development, and Socioemotional Selectivity Theory to understand players’ in-game behaviors and their corresponding need satisfaction from a developmental perspective. Survey data from 1213 randomly sampled World of Tanks players were combined with their behavioral data to investigate how players’ behaviors and their corresponding need satisfaction differ or converge across age. Age and in-game behaviors were tested as moderators for the relationship between perceived need satisfaction and psychological well-being. The results showed that despite underperforming and having fewer in-game connections, older players reported no significant difference in their perceived competence and relatedness than younger players. Perceived competence and relatedness contributed to psychological well-being for both older and younger players, although it carried more weight for the younger. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Do You Still Trust?

Recently, data breaches, especially insider data breaches, have become increasingly common. However, there is a limited amount of research on the factors associated with the decrease in users' trust in response to these events. In this study, social role theory and socioemotional selectivity theory are applied to understand the role of age (younger and older), biological (male and female) and cultural (masculinity and femininity) gender, and the four dimensions of privacy concern-collection, secondary use, unauthorized access, and error-on initial trust and the corresponding decrease in trust associated with the three trust beliefs of ability, benevolence, and integrity. A scenario-based approach is used to focus on a case study of an insider breach. The findings also provide helpful insights into the comparative roles of trust builders (e.g., reputation and design) and trust crashers (e.g., privacy concerns) in the process of trust building and trust decrease in different demographics (e.g., older and younger, males and females) for overall trust and trusting beliefs. Theoretical, managerial, and social implications are discussed.

Age Differences in Awe Among Young, Middle-aged, and Older Adults: Extensions of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

Increases in motivation for the pursuit of emotionally meaningful goals and activities as people age (socioemotional selectivity theory; SST) necessitates the investigation of means in which these goals and activities can be realized. In the present study adults (N = 130) aged 25 to 78 (M = 53.32; SD = 15.181) watched awe-inducing (view of space) and happiness-inducing (comedian Robin Williams interacting with Koko the “talking gorilla”) videos and then completed measures associated with awe, affect, and well-being (measured via PGC Positive and Negative Affect Scales). Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) were conducted to examine the effect of age (split by young, middle-aged, and older) on experiences of awe and positive affect in response to watching each video. There was a main effect of age on experiences of awe for both videos (ps < 05). Specifically, older adults experienced significantly higher levels of awe than young adults (p < .05) in response to video 1. They also experienced significantly higher levels of awe than young adults (p < .01) in response to video 2. Bivariate correlations among awe, well-being, and happiness were similar in strength and magnitude in each age group (ps < .05). Overall, consistent with Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, our findings suggest that affective reactions of awe and happiness, induced by videos, relate to well-being across age-groups. Future work should test whether the use of these awe-inducing videos can improve well-being.

Age Differences in Awe Among Young, Middle-aged, and Older Adults: Extensions of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

Increases in motivation for the pursuit of emotionally meaningful goals and activities as people age (socioemotional selectivity theory; SST) necessitates the investigation of means in which these goals and activities can be realized. In the present study adults (N = 130) aged 25 to 78 (M = 53.32; SD = 15.181) watched awe-inducing (view of space) and happiness-inducing (comedian Robin Williams interacting with Koko the “talking gorilla”) videos and then completed measures associated with awe, affect, and well-being (measured via PGC Positive and Negative Affect Scales). Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) were conducted to examine the effect of age (split by young, middle-aged, and older) on experiences of awe and positive affect in response to watching each video. There was a main effect of age on experiences of awe for both videos (ps < 05). Specifically, older adults experienced significantly higher levels of awe than young adults (p < .05) in response to video 1. They also experienced significantly higher levels of awe than young adults (p < .01) in response to video 2. Bivariate correlations among awe, well-being, and happiness were similar in strength and magnitude in each age group (ps < .05). Overall, consistent with Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, our findings suggest that affective reactions of awe and happiness, induced by videos, relate to well-being across age-groups. Future work should test whether the use of these awe-inducing videos can improve well-being.

Socioemotional Goals and Definitions of Emotion Terms: A Qualitative Analysis Across Age

Major theories of adult development posit that knowledge about emotion might evolve across the lifespan. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST) and the Strength and Vulnerability Integration (SAVI) models imply that the manner in which older (OA) and younger adults (YA) conceptualize emotions may differ in valence, arousal, reference to social partners, time perspective, and the self. Quantitative accounts of age differences in conceptualizations of emotion-terms offer mixed support for theoretical expectations, but many predictions have yet to be tested qualitatively. In this study, 90 OA and 210 YA provided narrative descriptions of 11 (5 positive, 6 negative) emotion-terms. Responses were coded on valence, reference to self/others, and arousal. O/YA used similar synonyms to define emotion-terms. As predicted, YA used high arousal language in their definitions of negative (OR = 10.29, p = 0.018) and positive terms more than OA (i.e. Happy: OR = 1.27, p<0.001); OA referenced other persons such as family and friends (pos: OR = 0.13, p<0.001; neg: OA = 0.32, p=0.002) more than YA. Contrary to predictions, OA self-referenced more often than YA in positive (OR = 0.12, p=0.001) and negative definitions (OR= 0.11, p=0.004); this may be attributed to OA providing more situational examples in their responses than YA. Somewhat consistent with SAVI and SST, OA may reference high-arousal states less when conceptualizing emotions and associate their definitions more with social partners than YA. Future research should address OA greater use of situational examples when defining emotion terms, motivational factors and emotional impact of these age differences.

What Do Introduction to Psychology Textbooks Have to Say About Older Adults?

Introduction to Psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate courses, an entry course for psychology majors and also popular with students from other disciplines. Consequently, the content in introductory psychology textbooks has the potential to influence undergraduates’ knowledge, attitudes, and interests, including those related to aging. The purpose of this study was to analyze aging-related content in introductory psychology textbooks to understand the topics to which students are exposed in this important course. We analyzed the indices of 21 best-selling Introduction to Psychology textbooks for both advanced and intermediate audiences, published between 2018 and 2020. We extracted and aggregated 275 unique, aging-specific index terms from the textbooks and analyzed their relative frequency. We identified 61 superordinate index terms corresponding to general terms (e.g., “aging,” “death”). The indices also included 214 unique subordinate terms that were more specific (e.g., “aging, and cognition”). Across textbooks, the most frequent topics reflected negative consequences of aging (e.g., “Alzheimer disease” = appeared in 100% of textbooks, “death” in 52%). In contrast, positive aspects of aging appeared less often (e.g., “generativity” in 47%, “longevity” in 10%). Terms describing career opportunities were rare (e.g., “gerontology” in 5%, “geropsychology” in 5%), as were modern theories (e.g., “socioemotional selectivity theory” in 28%). Advocacy for comprehensive and balanced representation of aging in introductory psychology textbooks is critical for educating students and promoting interest in the field.

Age Differences in Preparedness for the Continuation of COVID-19: Important Roles of Social Support

This study examined the association between age and preparedness for the continuation of COVID-19. The moderation effects of three types of social support, namely, emotional, financial, and instrumental assistance were also tested. Using a sample of 443 adults in Dallas county which has the most confirmed cases in Texas, results of multiple linear regressions showed that compared to those aged between 18 and 64, older adults aged 65 and reported better preparedness for the continuation of COVID-19. Receiving emotional, financial, and instrumental assistance were respectively more important for older people to get better prepared than for younger adults, which is consistent with the socioemotional selectivity theory. Our findings directed attention to the strengths and resilience of older adults during COVID-19 from a life course perspective and highlighted the importance of social support and social relationship in their post-disaster recovery and ongoing preparedness.

Need to Belong and Social Ties in Late Life

According to socioemotional selectivity theory, older adults are more selective and tend to shrink their social network to their closest ties. However, a heightened need to belong, which is characterized by a stronger desire for acceptance and motivation to affiliation, may alter this common pattern. We know little about how the need to belong shapes social network structure, especially in late life. This study investigated the associations between the need to belong, size of social network, and engagement with social ties among older adults. Participants (N = 314) aged over 65 years from the Daily Experiences and Well-being Study completed a baseline interview regarding their close ties (i.e., social convoy members), and weak ties, as well as a self-report measure of need to belong. They completed ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys reporting their social encounters every 3 hours over 5 to 6 days. Need to belong was unrelated to the number of close ties. In contrast, participants with a higher need to belong reported more less close (but still important) ties and weak ties than those with a lower need to belong, but spent a similar amount of time (i.e., proportion of EMA involving social encounters) with either their close ties or weak ties. These results suggest that the need to belong may motivate older adults to go beyond their closest ties to weaker ties, and highlight the discrepancies between the sense of being connected to social partners and the actual engagement with them in this process.

Purpose in Life: A Reconceptualization for Very Late Life

Across disciplines, we have long sought to understand the factors that contribute to purpose in life. Theorists have posited that having life goals, feeling productive, and remaining active are essential contributing elements to purpose in life (Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1969; Rowe & Kahn, 1997; Ryff, 1989). While these factors can undoubtedly contribute to purpose in life, they may not fully explain purpose in life for older adults in very late life (85 years old and older) who have long past and short future time horizons. In this presentation, we explore the concept of purpose in life for older adults in very late life and how current measures may not fully or accurately apply to this group. We examine the two most commonly used measures of purpose in life, the Purpose in Life Test (Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1964, 1969) and the Ryff Purpose Subscale (Ryff, 1989; Ryff & Keyes, 1995), and identify specific items that should be reconsidered for use with older adults in very late life. We then reconceptualize purpose in life for the oldest old based on several foundational theories, including Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, the Theory of Gerotranscendence, and Terror Management Theory. Stemming from this analysis, we posit that purpose in life in very life consists of three domains – the very long past, the very near future, and the transcendental post-mortem. Based upon this reconceptualization, we recommend the development of new measures of purpose of life in very late life that capture these three domains.