Older Adults' Responses to Emotional Stimuli: A Cautionary Note

Abstract

Thirty younger (mean age = 21 years) and 30 older (mean age = 73 years) adults were compared to determine if they had similar affective experiences to eight emotion films previously validated with young adults (Gross & Levenson, 1995). Participants rated their emotions, and heart rate was collected during two films of each emotion: amusement, anger, sadness, and fear. Older and younger adults were generally similar in their physiological and subjective responses to films, but with a few exceptions. Older adults reported more intense anger in response to one film and more intense nontarget negative emotions for both anger films compared with young adults. Some older adults also reported a negative response compared with young adults to one of the films designed to elicit amusement. Thus it is inappropriate to assume that emotional stimuli produce the same response across the adult life span.

The authors wish to thank Quinn Kennedy, PhD, for her helpful comments on this paper and Paul Henroid for his invaluable assistance in video editing. This research was supported by training grant AG 00030 from the National Institute on Aging and from the Spencer T. Olin Fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis. Writing of the manuscript was partly supported by the Office of Academic Affiliations, VA Special MIRECC Fellowship Program in Advanced Psychiatry and Psychology, Department of Veterans Affairs. Portions of this study were presented at the 40th annual convention for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies in Chicago, IL, in November 2006.

Notes

^a Degrees of freedom = 58 for some tests because of missing data.

∗p < .05.

∗p < .05; ∗∗∗p < .001.

Note. Ratings are on a scale ranging from 0 (not even the slightest bit) to 8 (most ever felt in life).

∗p < .05; ∗∗p < .01; ∗∗∗p < .001; ∗∗∗∗p < .0001.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sherry A. Beaudreau

Sherry A. Beaudreau is now at the Sierra Pacific Mental Illness, Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC), Stanford University School of Medicine, and Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Palo Alto, California.