Emotional complexity and its effect on psychological distress as a function of chronological age and subjective distance-to-death

Abstract

Objectives: In light of mixed evidence regarding the associations between age, emotional complexity, and psychological distress, this study examined emotional complexity and its effect on psychological distress as a function of age and subjective distance-to-death.

Method: A sample of 188 participants (age range = 29–100) rated their subjective distance-to-death and psychological distress, and reported their emotions across 14 days.

Results: Emotional complexity was unrelated to age, but negatively related to feeling closer to death. Moreover, emotional complexity was negatively related to psychological distress among those feeling closer to death.

Conclusion: Results suggest that when death is perceived to be nearer, emotional complexity is hampered, yet becomes relevant in buffering psychological distress.

Keywords:

• emotional complexity
• chronological age
• subjective distance-to-death
• psychological distress

Notes

1. We compared our values to those reported by Carstensen et al. (2000), as to the best of our knowledge; there is no published study that used daily assessment of emotions with the SPANE in a lifespan sample. It should be added that the average number of components (emotional differentiation score) was higher in Carstensen et al. (2000) study, as they used 19 emotion terms, whereas in this study there were 12 terms. Indeed, a higher number of items increases the chance of getting more components.

2. Following the comment by one of the reviewers, we also examined non-linear effect of chronological age and subjective DtD on emotional complexity (after controlling for covariates and linear effect). There were no non-linear effects for chronological age and subjective DtD on either emotional co-occurrence (p = .100 and .548, for chronological age or subjective DtD, respectively) or emotional differentiation (p = .196 and .181, for chronological age or subjective DtD, respectively). This implies that our findings were not confined to those who were very old or felt very close to death. We further examined whether chronological age and subjective DtD had an interactive effect on emotional complexity (after controlling for covariates and main effects). The interaction between chronological age and subjective DtD was marginally significant for emotional co-occurrence (p = .069) and emotional differentiation (p = 0.055). Further examination showed that there was a trend for a stronger relationship between subjective DtD and emotional complexity among older respondents (although the relationship was significant among younger respondents as well). This shows that our findings were not confined to a specific age group.