Although older adults face significant health challenges, they tend to have better emotion regulation skills than younger or middle-age adults. Why is this so?
This book explores the reciprocal relations between aging and emotion, as well as applications for promoting mental and physical health across the lifespan. The authors discuss the neural and cognitive mechanisms behind age-related shifts in affective experience and processing.
In addition to presenting emotion regulation strategies for offsetting age-related declines in mental and physical functioning, the book examines the role of culture and motivation in shaping emotional experience across the lifespan, as well as the factors defining boundary conditions between human illness and human flourishing in old age.
Contributors
Foreword
Karl Pillemer
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Anthony D. Ong and Corinna E. Löckenhoff
I. Neural and Cognitive Mechanisms
- Default Mode Network and Later-Life Emotion Regulation: Linking Functional Connectivity Patterns and Emotional Outcomes
Bruna Martins and Mara Mather - Age Differences in Use and Effectiveness of Positivity in Emotion Regulation: The Sample Case of Attention
Kimberly M. Livingstone and Derek M. Isaacowitz
II. Regulatory Frameworks
- Resources for Emotion Regulation in Older Age: Linking Cognitive Resources With Cognitive Reappraisal
Heather L. Urry - Regulatory Flexibility and Its Role in Adaptation to Aversive Events Throughout the Lifespan
Charles L. Burton and George A. Bonanno
III. Motivational Perspectives
- Happy to Be Unhappy? Pro- and Contrahedonic Motivations From Adolescence to Old Age
Michaela Riediger and Gloria Luong - Emotional Aging in Different Cultures: Implications of Affect Valuation Theory
Jeanne L. Tsai and Tamara Sims
IV. Health Implications
- Bridging the Dynamic Aspects of Personality and Emotion That Influence Health
Emily D. Bastarache and Daniel K. Mroczek - Positive Psychological Functioning: An Enduring Asset for Healthy Aging
Laura D. Kubzansky and Julia K. Boehm - Emotional Experience and Health: What We Know, and Where to Go From Here
Susan T. Charles, Kate A. Leger, and Emily J. Urban
V. Interventions
- The Humanization of Social Relations: Nourishment for Resilience in Midlife
Alex J. Zautra, Frank J. Infurna, Eva K. Zautra, Carmen Écija Gallardo, and Lilian Velasco
Index
About the Editors