Self-descriptions of emotions in 72 participants aged 10 to 77 were assessed. Responses were reliably scored in terms of a 4-level cognitive-developmental coding scheme for each of 4 emotions: anger, sadness, fear, and happiness. Results showed that those younger or lower in ego level and verbal ability described emotions in terms of sensorimotor actions, outer appearance, conventional and technical descriptions, rigid impulse monitoring, and an emphasis on control and the ideal. Those older or of higher ego level and verbal ability conveyed a vivid sense of the experience, had explicit knowledge of bodily sensations, accepted conflict within self and others, and displayed flexibility and delay of action. These findings suggest that understanding of emotions develops along a dimension of cognitive complexity over the life span. This dimension, in turn, is related to life span changes in coping and defense.

Both throughout history and in current philosophies, two modes of thought and self-regulation have been documented: one that is intuitive, subjective, and emotional, and one that is rational, objective, and logical. Several contemporary approaches to self-regulation have attempted to specify the relationship between these two available modes. In this paper, we propose a model that suggests a shift in the organization of the two modes as a function of developmental maturity. This model is applied to the development of a four-level assessment scheme for the understanding and control of four emotional states: anger, sadness, fear, and happiness. Preliminary analyses of a subsample of 28 males and females (11–67 years of age) show a developmental trend in these levels as a function of age. Ego development and verbal ability were also related to the level exhibited, making the specific determinants of these trends a subject for further analysis. The proposed model is discussed in light of these findings.

The relationship between positive and negative events and emotional well-being for depressed and nondepressed residents of a nursing home and congregate housing care facility was examined. For 30 consecutive working days, each of 79 participants was presented with the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Positive and Negative Affect rating scales. Events during the previous 24 hr were elicited by an open-ended format. Results indicated that variations in daily events (e.g., health, family, self-initiated, and social events) were related to residents' affect, and there was congruence between mood and event valence when the effects of psychopathology and residence were removed. Thus, regardless of diagnosis or residential setting, people's moods showed a relationship to the quality of daily events. Findings also indicated that ratings of residents' affect could be translated into audits for institutional quality.

Impairments of memory storage and retrieval produced by diazepam (2.5 mg, 5 mg, and 10 mg) in normal elderly individuals were compared to those observed in patients with primary degenerative dementia tested under nondrug conditions. The highest diazepam dose affected retrieval as well as storage processes in Buschke's "selective reminding" task, producing impairments qualitatively similar to those shown by demented patients. All diazepam doses impaired Buschke task performance in the normal elderly individuals; normal young subjects, in contrast, showed no impairment with a low (2.5 mg) diazepam dose.

No abstract