Stability and change in affective experience across the adult life span: Analyses with a national sample from Germany.

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research at DIW BerlinThis series presents research findings based either directly on data from the German SocioEconomic Panel Study (SOEP) or using SOEP data as part of an internationally comparable data set (e.g. CNEF, ECHP, LIS, LWS, CHER/PACO). SOEP is a truly multidisciplinary household panel study covering a wide range of social and behavioral sciences: economics, sociology, psychology, survey methodology, econometrics and applied statistics, educational science, political science, public health, behavioral genetics, demography, geography, and sport science.The decision to publish a submission in SOEPpapers is made by a board of editors chosen by the DIW Berlin to represent the wide range of disciplines covered by SOEP. There is no external referee process and papers are either accepted or rejected without revision. Papers appear in this series as works in progress and may also appear elsewhere. They often represent preliminary studies and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be requested from the author directly.Any opinions expressed in this series are those of the author(s) and not those of DIW Berlin.Research disseminated by DIW Berlin may include views on public policy issues, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. AbstractUsing cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a national sample spanning the adult lifespan, age differences in anger and sadness were explored. The cross-sectional and longitudinal findings consistently suggest that the frequency of anger increases during young adulthood, but then shows a steady decrease until old age. By contrast, the frequency of sadness remains stable over most of adulthood and begins to increase in old age. In addition, the effects of age on happiness were investigated; the cross-sectional evidence speaks for a steady decrease in happiness across age groups, but within-person decline in happiness was only evident in old age. Together the findings provide further evidence for multidirectional age differences in affective experience and suggest that the overall quality of affective experience may deteriorate in old age. Although the evidence for age differences in positive affect is somewhat more mixed, the findings from many studies tell a similar story, namely, positive affect does not decline wi...

Does positive affect change in old age? Results from a 22-year longitudinal study.

“…This pattern suggested a linear change in PA before a decline phase. This finding is in line with the data of Charles et al (2001) as well as with those obtained recently by Kunzmann, Richter, and Schmukle (2013), showing that a substantial longitudinal decrease in mean levels of happiness was evident only in old age. Thus, paraphrasing Vogel et al (2013), whose 15-year longitudinal study highlighted both age-related and time-to-death-related decline in PA, "increase despite loss" does not reflect the developmental changes in PA in late life.…”

Emotional aging: a discrete emotions perspective

“…Age-related differences in the experience of anger and sadness have also been examined on the level of affect frequency in a longitudinal field study with a national sample of German adults covering most of the adult lifespan (Kunzmann et al, 2013). More specifically, cross-sectional and longitudinal findings from this study consistently suggest that the frequency of anger increases from late adolescence into young adulthood, but shows a steady decrease from midlife to old age.…”

“…More specifically, cross-sectional and longitudinal findings from this study consistently suggest that the frequency of anger increases from late adolescence into young adulthood, but shows a steady decrease from midlife to old age. By contrast, the frequency of sadness remained stable over most of adulthood and increased in old age (Kunzmann et al, 2013). Extending this work, a recent study explored age differences in anger and sadness by focusing on the intensity and frequency of emotional experiences on a typical day and their implicit associations with participants' self (Kunzmann and Thomas, 2014).…”

Getting older, feeling less? A cross-sectional and longitudinal investigation of developmental patterns in experiential well-being.

“…Notably, research indicates that negative affect, in particular, wanes with age (e.g., Charles et al, 2015; Charles, Reynolds, & Gatz, 2001)—although emerging evidence suggests that certain discrete negative emotions (e.g., sadness) may defy this trend (e.g., Kunzmann, Kappes, & Wrosch, 2014; Kunzmann, Richter, & Schmukle, 2013). Evidence is far more mixed with respect to developmental changes in positive affect and life satisfaction.…”