Emotional complexity in younger, midlife, and older adults.

Abstract

Questions pertaining to emotional complexity in adult development are being pursued from a number of vantage points. The current studies sought to clarify the study of emotional complexity by comparing and contrasting two dominant perspectives on emotional complexity in different age groups (i.e. covariation and absolute-level approaches). Results indicate that emotional complexity is a multifaceted construct and that methodology will impact substantive findings and developmental trends that emerge from the data. Recommendations and considerations for future research are discussed, including, for example, within-versus cross-domain ideas of emotional complexity. Keywordsaging; assessment; affect; older adults; complexity Lifespan perspectives on adult development are mirroring a larger trend in psychological science to consider integrated perspectives on emotion (Reich, Zautra, & Davis, 2003). Specifically, questions pertaining to various aspects of emotional complexity are being pursued (Carstensen, Pasupathi, Mayr, & Nesselroade, 2000;Charles, 2005;Magai, Consedine, Krivoshekova, Kudadjie-Gyamfi, & McPherson, 2006;Ong & Bergeman, 2004). There is some suggestion in this work of age differences in emotional complexity favoring older adults but consensus is hard to discern because investigators use different methods to assess emotional complexity.That is, emotional complexity is multiply defined. The goal of the current studies was to integrate, compare, and contrast two dominant perspectives on emotional complexity. 1 We label these approaches the covariation and the absolute-level perspectives. According to the former, low covariation among discrete affects or between larger affect systems [i.e., positive (PA) and negative affect (NA)] indicate greater emotional complexity. Low covariation suggests the capacity to experience affects as independent yet potentially co-occurring (Carstensen et al., 2000;Ong & Bergeman, 2004;Tugade, Fredrickson, & Feldman Barrett, 2004). In the current studies, covariation was assessed across PA and NA (i.e., correlation Address Correspondence to: Rebecca E. Ready, Ph.D., The University of Massachusetts, Department of Psychology, Tobin Hall, 135 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01003; Phone: 413-545-1359; Fax: 413-545-0996; ready@psych.umass.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at www.apa.org/journals/pag. 1 Whereas the covariation and absolute-level approaches to emotional complexity appear frequently in the adult development literature, there are other perspectives. For example, Labouvie-Veif's...

Emodiversity and the emotional ecosystem.

“…Our research demonstrates small gender differences, with men showing slightly lower levels of negative emodiversity, a finding that dovetails with previous research showing that men tend to be lower in emotional awareness (Barrett, Lane, Sechrest, & Schwartz, 2000). Likewise, age was negatively related to our different measures of emodiversity, aligning with recent research showing that depending on the manner in which emotional complexity is defined and measured, younger adults can sometimes display a more complex emotional life than older adults (Ready, Carvalho, & Weinberger, 2008).…”

Understanding the Experiences of Anxiety in Community Dwelling Older Adults—Understanding Anxiety in Older Adults

“…The present research supported the finding of emotional complexity in older adults found in other studies [21]. Older adults reported numerous emotions in a situation they reported as causing anxiety.…”

Age-related and death-related differences in emotional complexity.

“…In contrast to the relatively consistent findings regarding the association between aging and affect level, empirical findings regarding the association between aging and emotional complexity are mixed (Carstensen, Pasupathi, Mayr, & Nesselroade, 2000;Carstensen et al, 2011;Hay & Diehl, 2011;Grühn et al, 2013;Ong & Bergman, 2004;Ready et al, 2008).…”