Emotional aging: a discrete emotions perspective

Perhaps the most important single finding in the field of emotional aging has been that the overall quality of affective experience steadily improves during adulthood and can be maintained into old age. Recent lifespan developmental theories have provided motivation- and experience-based explanations for this phenomenon. These theories suggest that, as individuals grow older, they become increasingly motivated and able to regulate their emotions, which could result in reduced negativity and enhanced positivity. The objective of this paper is to expand existing theories and empirical research on emotional aging by presenting a discrete emotions perspective. To illustrate the usefulness of this approach, we focus on a discussion of the literature examining age differences in anger and sadness. These two negative emotions have typically been subsumed under the singular concept of negative affect. From a discrete emotions perspective, however, they are highly distinct and show multidirectional age differences. We propose that such contrasting age differences in specific negative emotions have important implications for our understanding of long-term patterns of affective well-being across the adult lifespan.
The single most important finding in the field of emotional aging is perhaps that affective well-being does not decline during most of the adult lifespan (e.g., Charles and Carstensen, 2007; Scheibe and Carstensen, 2010; Isaacowitz and Blanchard-Fields, 2012). Research based on the most prominent life-span theories of developmental regulation and emotional aging have provided different explanations for this phenomenon by examining broad dimensions of emotions (i.e., negative affect and positive affect; e.g., Baltes and Baltes, 1990; Brandtstädter and Greve, 1994; Heckhausen, 1997; Carstensen, 2006). Complementing these theories, we present a discrete emotions perspective, that considers specific positive and negative emotions. To illustrate the usefulness of this approach, we focus on a discussion of age differences in the experience of anger and sadness. These two negative emotions have typically been subsumed under the singular concept of negative affect. From a discrete emotions perspective, however, they are highly distinct and show multidirectional age differences. We propose that such contrasting age differences in specific emotions have important implications for understanding long-term patterns of affective well-being across the adult lifespan.