Video Games and Emotion Regulation

Abstract. Research on age differences in media usage has shown that older adults are more likely than younger adults to select positive emotional content. Research on emotional aging has examined whether older adults also seek out positivity in the everyday situations they choose, resulting so far in mixed results. We investigated the emotional choices of different age groups using video games as a more interactive type of affect-laden stimuli. Participants made multiple selections from a group of positive and negative games. Results showed that older adults selected the more positive games, but also reported feeling worse after playing them. Results supplement the literature on positivity in situation selection as well as on older adults’ interactive media preferences.

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EXPLORING AGE, GENDER, AND RELATIONSHIP CLOSENESS DIFFERENCES IN RESPONSES TO IGNORED DISRESPECT

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igz038.1118 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S305-S305

Author(s):

Jenessa C Steele ◽

Amanda Chappell ◽

Rachel Scott

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Young Adults ◽

Age Differences ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Age Groups ◽

Emotional Responses ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Relationship Closeness ◽

Close Condition

Abstract Emotional responses to disrespect tend to be negative (Hawkins, 2015). Little is known about how responses to disrespect vary across age groups and relationship closeness. It is unknown whether older adults have more emotional protection against disrespectful experiences, or are more deeply affected due to relationship closeness. Overall, we might expect that older adults react less negatively to disrespect compared to young adults, as they are more-skilled emotion regulators (Carstensen, 1991; English & Carstensen, 2014). We aimed to explore if, and under which circumstances, older adults are more or less sensitive to disrespect compared to younger adults. Three hundred participants responded to six scenarios illustrating ignored disrespect. Participants were randomly assigned to close or distant relationship disrespect scenarios. Relationship closeness was first determined by requesting participants identify a person in each layer of Kahn and Antonucci’s (1980) Social Convoy Model. Identified names were then automatically inserted into the six scenarios. Emotional responses and sensitivity to each scenario were recorded. Participants in the close condition reported more sensitivity to disrespect and negative emotions than participants in the distant condition. Females reported more sensitivity to disrespect and negative emotions than males. We did not find overwhelming support for age differences in responses to disrespect. A single scenario indicated younger participants more sensitive to disrespect than older participants. Findings suggest it is more hurtful to be disrespected by someone close to you and females may be more sensitive to disrespect than males. More research investigating the role of age in disrespect is needed.

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Age Differences in Material Deprivation in Finland: How do Consensus and Prevalence-Based Weighting Approaches Change the Picture?

Social Indicators Research ◽

10.1007/s11205-020-02571-w ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ilari Ilmakunnas ◽

Lauri Mäkinen

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Age Differences ◽

Age Groups ◽

Material Deprivation ◽

Prevalence Rates ◽

Group Level ◽

Younger Adults ◽

New Information ◽

Deprivation Indices

AbstractWhile material deprivation is often used to measure poverty, analyses focusing on the measurement of material deprivation are scarce. This study provides new information on material deprivation by analyzing how differences in the considerations of necessities and possession of deprivation items among all respondents and within population subgroups affect group-level differences in material deprivation in Finland. In line with many previous studies on material deprivation, this study focused on age groups. There is a significant age gradient regarding considerations of necessities, possession, and deprivation of many deprivation items. On average, younger adults experience material deprivation more often than older adults do. This study considers the differences in the considerations of necessities and possession of deprivation items using different weighting approaches. The study found that these differences are not largely transmitted to deprivation indices. Two causes of this finding were found: (1) individuals, on average, are not deprived of items in which there are differences between age groups regarding consensus and prevalence and (2) in those items in which deprivation is high, the consensus and the prevalence rates are often lower compared to other items. The results provide new information on which factors are important when using weighting approaches to measure material deprivation.

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ANGER, LOVE, SADNESS: DO EMOTION WORDS HAVE THE SAME SEMANTIC MEANING ACROSS AGE-GROUPS?

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igz038.3099 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S841-S842

Author(s):

Madeline J Nichols ◽

Jennifer A Bellingtier ◽

Frances Buttelmann

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Age Differences ◽

Language Use ◽

Age Groups ◽

Past Research ◽

Semantic Meaning ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Emotion Words ◽

Emotion Word ◽

Age Related

Abstract Every day we use emotion words to describe our experiences, but past research finds that the meanings of these words can vary. Furthermore, historical shifts in language use and experiential knowledge of the emotions may contribute to age-differences in what these emotion words convey. We examined age-related differences in the valence, arousal, and expression connoted by the words anger, love, and sadness. We predicted age-related differences in the semantic meanings of the words would emerge such that older adults would more clearly differentiate the positivity/negativity of the words, whereas younger adults would report higher endorsement for the conveyed arousal and expression. Participants included American and German older adults (N=61; mean age=68.98) and younger adults (N=77; mean age=20.77). Using the GRID instrument (Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, 2013), they rated each emotion word for its valence, arousal, and expression when used by a speaker of the participant’s native language. Across emotions and dimensions, older adults were generally more moderate in their understanding of emotion words. For example, German older adults rated anger and sadness as suggesting the speaker felt less bad and more good than the younger adults. American older adults rated love as connoting the speaker felt more bad and less good than younger adults. Arousal ratings were higher for German younger, as opposed to older, adults. Cultural differences were most pronounced for sadness such that German participants gave more moderate answers than American participants. Overall, our research suggests that there are age-related differences in the understanding of emotion words.

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Virtual Hand Illusion in younger and older adults

Journal of Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies Engineering ◽

10.1177/20556683211059389 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 205566832110593

Author(s):

Jennifer L. Campos ◽

Graziella El-Khechen Richandi ◽

Marge Coahran ◽

Lindsey E. Fraser ◽

Babak Taati ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Virtual Environments ◽

Age Differences ◽

Age Groups ◽

Tactile Feedback ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Localization Accuracy ◽

Virtual Hand ◽

Age Related ◽

Spatio Temporal

Introduction Embodiment involves experiencing ownership over our body and localizing it in space and is informed by multiple senses (visual, proprioceptive and tactile). Evidence suggests that embodiment and multisensory integration may change with older age. The Virtual Hand Illusion (VHI) has been used to investigate multisensory contributions to embodiment, but has never been evaluated in older adults. Spatio-temporal factors unique to virtual environments may differentially affect the embodied perceptions of older and younger adults. Methods Twenty-one younger (18–35 years) and 19 older (65+ years) adults completed the VHI paradigm. Body localization was measured at baseline and again, with subjective ownership ratings, following synchronous and asynchronous visual-tactile interactions. Results Higher ownership ratings were observed in the synchronous relative to the asynchronous condition, but no effects on localization/drift were found. No age differences were observed. Localization accuracy was biased in both age groups when the virtual hand was aligned with the real hand, indicating a visual mislocalization of the virtual hand. Conclusions No age-related differences in the VHI were observed. Mislocalization of the hand in VR occurred for both groups, even when congruent and aligned; however, tactile feedback reduced localization biases. Our results expand the current understanding of age-related changes in multisensory embodiment within virtual environments.

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Looking the same, but remembering differently: Preserved eye-movement synchrony with age during movie-watching

10.31234/osf.io/xazdw ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Emily Davis ◽

Emily Chemnitz ◽

Tyler K. Collins ◽

Linda Geerligs ◽

Karen L. Campbell

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Eye Movement ◽

Age Differences ◽

Neural Activity ◽

Age Groups ◽

Cued Recall ◽

False Information ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Age Related ◽

Movement Synchrony

Naturalistic stimuli (e.g., movies) provide the opportunity to study lifelike experiences in the lab. While young adults respond to these stimuli in a highly synchronized manner (as indexed by intersubject correlations [ISC] in their neural activity), older adults respond more idiosyncratically. Here, we examine whether eye movement synchrony (eye-ISC) also declines with age during movie-watching and whether it relates to memory for the movie. Our results show no age-related decline in eye-ISC, suggesting that age differences in neural ISC are not caused by differences in viewing patterns. Both age groups recalled the same number of episodic details from the movie, however, older adults recalled more semantic and false information. In both age groups, more recall of false information related to lower eye-ISC. Finally, older adults showed better cued-recall than younger adults across event boundaries, suggesting that older adults may form broader associations across events when encoding everyday experiences.

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EFFECTS OF AGE ON CONNECTION TO NATURE AND POSITIVE AFFECT

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igz038.1029 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S278-S278

Author(s):

Amy Knepple Carney ◽

Julie Patrick

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Positive Affect ◽

Sample Size ◽

Age Differences ◽

Age Groups ◽

Future Research ◽

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory ◽

Connection To Nature ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Socioemotional Selectivity

Abstract Socioemotional selectivity theory positis that when we feel our time as limited, when a person ages, emotion based goals become a priority (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999). Although previous studies have shown that all age groups benefit from a connection to nature (CN; Bisceglia, Perlman, Schaack, & Jenkins, 2009; Han, 2008; Mayer et al., 2009), there have been no studies conducted to determine if there are age differences in CN and how that relation contributes to positive affect. Analyses were conducted with a sample size of 152 participants with an average age of 37.55 years (SD = 15.64; Range 18 -89). Age was significantly positively associated with CN, r(151)=.16, p<.05. Additionally, an ANOVA showed that middle-aged to older adults reporting significantly higher CN than younger adults. The relation of positive affect to age and CN was then examined. In the analysis examining the effects of age and CN on positive affect, the model was significant, F(3, 146)=8.48, p<.05, R2 = .15. Both, CN, and age, uniquely contributed to the variance accounted for on positive affect, although, the interaction of CN and age did not uniquely contribute to the variance. These results may be indicative of socioemotional selectively theory, in that older adults were choosing connection to nature because it fulfilled more emotional activities/goals than the younger adults in the study. Because previous research has all but ignored the association of CN and age and their relation to positive affect, it should be considered in future research.

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Age, Loss Minimization, and the Role of Probability for Decision-Making

Gerontology ◽

10.1159/000487636 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 64 (5) ◽

pp. 475-484 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ryan Best ◽

Alexandra M. Freund

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Goal Orientation ◽

Age Differences ◽

Age Groups ◽

Opposite Pattern ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Gain Loss ◽

Meta Analyses ◽

Loss Framing ◽

Risky Option

Background: Older adults are stereotypically considered to be risk averse compared to younger age groups, although meta-analyses on age and the influence of gain/loss framing on risky choices have not found empirical evidence for age differences in risk-taking. Objective: The current study extends the investigation of age differences in risk preference by including analyses on the effect of the probability of a risky option on choices in gain versus loss situations. Methods: Participants (n = 130 adults aged 19–80 years) chose between a certain option and a risky option of varying probability in gain- and loss-framed gambles with actual monetary outcomes. Results: Only younger adults displayed an overall framing effect. Younger and older adults responded differently to probability fluctuations depending on the framing condition. Older adults were more likely to choose the risky option as the likelihood of avoiding a larger loss increased and as the likelihood of a larger gain decreased. Younger adults responded with the opposite pattern: they were more likely to choose the risky option as the likelihood of a larger gain increased and as the likelihood of avoiding a (slightly) larger loss decreased. Conclusion: Results suggest that older adults are more willing to select a risky option when it increases the likelihood that larger losses be avoided, whereas younger adults are more willing to select a risky option when it allows for slightly larger gains. This finding supports expectations based on theoretical accounts of goal orientation shifting away from securing gains in younger adulthood towards maintenance and avoiding losses in older adulthood. Findings are also discussed in respect to the affective enhancement perspective and socioemotional selectivity theory.

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Measurement Invariance of Social Media Use in Younger and Older Adults and Links to Socioemotional Health

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igab009 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Neika Sharifian ◽

A Zarina Kraal ◽

Afsara B Zaheed ◽

Ketlyne Sol ◽

Emily P Morris ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Social Media ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Measurement Invariance ◽

Media Use ◽

Age Groups ◽

Social Media Use ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Media Usage ◽

Socioemotional Health

Abstract Background and Objectives Social media use has been linked to socioemotional health; however, less is known regarding whether these associations are moderated by age. Additionally, as the use of social media in older adult populations is rapidly increasing, there is a greater need for the investigation of psychometric properties of social media usage scales before determining age differences in the impact of social media on socioemotional health outcomes. Research Design and Methods Using an online adult lifespan sample (n=592), the current cross-sectional study tested the measurement invariance of the general social media usage subscale of the Media and Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale across younger (aged 19-54) versus older (aged 55-81) adults and whether age moderated associations between social media use and socioemotional health (depressive symptoms, self-esteem, envy). Results Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that posting-related and checking-related items were noninvariant across age groups. In multi-group structural equation models accounting for differential item functioning, higher social media use was associated with more depressive symptoms in younger adults, but not in older adults. While higher social media use was associated with higher envy in both age groups, this association was stronger in younger adults. Discussion and Implications Findings suggest younger adults may be more susceptible to the detrimental effects of social media use on socioemotional health. Future directions regarding the measurement of social media use and the salience of social media use across the lifespan are discussed.

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Cue-related phase reset accounts for age differences in phasic alerting

10.1101/413260 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Iris Wiegand ◽

Myriam C. Sander

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Age Differences ◽

Phase Locking ◽

Age Groups ◽

Warning Signal ◽

External Input ◽

Maximum Effect ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Neural Underpinnings ◽

Effective Use

AbstractAlertness is fundamental for the efficiency of information processing. A person’s level of alertness refers to the system’s state of general responsiveness, and can be temporarily increased by presenting a neutral warning cue shortly before an event occurs (Posner & Petersen, 1990). However, effects of alerts on subsequent stimulus processing are less consistent in older than in younger individuals. In this study, we investigated the neural underpinnings of age differences in processing of auditory alerting cues. We measured electroencephalographic power and phase locking in response to alerting cues in a visual letter report task, in which younger but not older adults showed a cue-related behavioral advantage.Alerting cues evoked a significant increase in power as well as in inter-trial phase locking, with a maximum effect in the alpha frequency (8–12 Hz) in both age groups. Importantly, these cue-related increases in phase locking and power were stronger in older than in younger adults and were negatively correlated with the behavioral alerting effect in the older sample.Our results are in accordance with the assumption that older adults’ neural responses may be more strongly driven by external input and less variable than younger adults’. A stronger resetting of the system in response to the auditory cue may have hindered older adults’ effective use of the warning signal to foster processing of the following visual stimulus.

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Age Differences in Beliefs About Emotion Regulation Strategies

The Journals of Gerontology Series B ◽

10.1093/geronb/gby022 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 75 (2) ◽

pp. 316-326 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kimberly M Livingstone ◽

Vanessa L Castro ◽

Derek M Isaacowitz

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Age Differences ◽

Process Model ◽

Latent Profile Analysis ◽

Well Being ◽

Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽

Middle Aged ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Regulation Strategies

Abstract Objectives Age shifts in emotion regulation may be rooted in beliefs about different strategies. We test whether there are age differences in the beliefs people hold about specific emotion regulation strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation and whether profiles of emotion beliefs vary by age. Method An adult life-span sample (N = 557) sorted 13 emotion regulation strategies either by (a) how effective the strategies would be or (b) how likely they would be to use them, in 15 negative emotion-eliciting situations. Results Younger adults ranked attentional and cognitive distraction more effective than older adults, and preferred avoidance, distraction, and rumination more (and attentional deployment less) than middle-aged and older adults. Latent profile analysis on preferences identified three distinct strategy profiles: Classically adaptive regulators preferred a variety of strategies; situation modifiers showed strong preferences for changing situations; a small percentage of people preferred avoidance and rumination. Middle-aged and older adults were more likely than younger adults to be classically adaptive regulators (as opposed to situation modifiers or avoiders/ruminators). Discussion These findings provide insight into the reasons people of different ages may select and implement different emotion regulation strategies, which may influence their emotional well-being.

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