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Plys E, Jacobs ML, Allen RS, Arch JJ. Psychological flexibility in older adulthood: a scoping review. Aging Ment Health 2023; 27:453-465. [PMID: 35168415 PMCID: PMC9376200 DOI: 10.1080/13607863.2022.2036948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Psychological flexibility/inflexibility (PF/PI) is a core component of the acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) model, which is gaining more attention in the geropsychological literature. This scoping review examines the size and scope of the research on PF/PI in older adulthood related to age differences between older adult and younger samples, correlates relevant to psychological health, and changes with ACT. METHODS A systematic literature search was conducted using PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. Peer-reviewed articles available in English were included that: had a mean age ≥65 and a minimum age ≥60; and reported self-report measures of PF/PI. We categorized PF/PI into three domains: open, aware, and engaged. RESULTS Forty-six articles were included. Most studies measured open or aware domains; few measured the engaged domain. Older adults evidenced greater awareness compared to younger adults (9 of 13 analyses were significant). Openness and awareness consistently yielded medium to large correlations with anxiety and depression. PF/PI did not relate with positive affect and inconsistently correlated with quality of life measures. CONCLUSION Despite emerging trends, variability and limitations were evident in the literature. Specifically, measurement issues, lack of conceptual clarity, and the omission of values and behavioral measures require future attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evan Plys
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine
| | - M. Lindsey Jacobs
- Research and Development Service, Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center
- Department of Psychology, University of Alabama
| | - Rebecca S. Allen
- Department of Psychology, University of Alabama
- Alabama Research Institute on Aging, University of Alabama
| | - Joanna J. Arch
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder
- Cancer Prevention and Control, University of Colorado Cancer Center
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2
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Sardella A, Lenzo V, Basile G, Martino G, Quattropani MC. Emotion regulation strategies and difficulties in older adults: A systematic review. Clin Gerontol 2022; 46:280-301. [PMID: 36163629 DOI: 10.1080/07317115.2022.2128706] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the types of emotion regulation (ER) strategies used and difficulties in emotion regulation experienced by older adults, within the theoretical frameworks proposed by Gross, and by Gratz and Roemer, respectively. METHODS A systematic search was conducted using principal electronic scientific databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science). The systematic review was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses guidelines. RESULTS The final number of articles included was 44. Older adults reported a higher use of adaptive ER strategies, as well as fewer difficulties in ER, compared with younger adults. Findings from this review also suggest that the use of maladaptive ER strategies can also expose older adults to psychological distress, and may affect their adaptation to negative disease-related outcomes more common in later life. CONCLUSIONS Older adults generally showed a greater emotional control compared with younger subjects. Adaptive control strategies, rather than maladaptive control strategies, were correlated with more positive outcomes for psychological distress and adaptation to chronic diseases. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Understanding the nature of ER processes in older adults may contribute to implement tailored interventions aimed at reinforcing adaptive ER processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Sardella
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - Vittorio Lenzo
- Department of Social and Educational Sciences of the Mediterranean Area, University for Foreigners "Dante Alighieri" of Reggio Calabria, Reggio, Italy
| | - Giorgio Basile
- Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - Gabriella Martino
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
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Lin H, Chang Y, Chen C, Ho YW, Xi W, Zhang X, Fung HH, Ayalon L. Are older adults more optimistic? Evidence from China, Israel and the US. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2021; 77:e83-e94. [PMID: 33718956 PMCID: PMC7989198 DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbab046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives Optimistic bias refers to the phenomenon that individuals believe bad things are less likely to happen to themselves than to others. However, whether optimistic bias could vary across age and culture is unknown. The present study aims to investigate: 1) whether individuals exhibit optimistic bias in the context of COVID-19 pandemic; 2) and whether age and culture would moderate such bias. Method 1051 participants recruited from China, Israel and the US took the online survey. Risk perceptions consists of three questions: estimating the infected probability of different social distance groups (i.e., self, close others, and non-close others), the days that it would take for the number of new infections to decrease to zero and the trend of infections in regions of different geographical distances (i.e., local place, other places inside participants’ country and other countries). Participants in China and the US also reported their personal communal values measured by Schwartz’s Value Survey. Results Results from HLM generally confirmed that 1) all participants exhibited optimistic bias to some extent, and 2) with age, Chinese participants had a higher level of optimistic bias than Israeli and US participants. Compared to their younger counterparts, older Chinese are more likely to believe that local communities are at lower risk of COVID-19 than other countries. Discussion These findings support the hypothesis that age differences in risk perceptions might be influenced by cultural context. Further analysis indicated that such cultural and age variations in optimistic bias were likely to be driven by age-related increase in internalized cultural values.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongmei Lin
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Yuanqing Chang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Chao Chen
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Yuen Wan Ho
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, MA, US
| | - Wanyu Xi
- Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Xin Zhang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.,Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Helene H Fung
- Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Liat Ayalon
- Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
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Devitt AL, Schacter DL. Looking on the Bright Side: Aging and the Impact of Emotional Future Simulation on Subsequent Memory. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2020; 75:1831-1840. [PMID: 30950496 PMCID: PMC7566964 DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbz041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES When younger adults simulated positive future events, subsequent memory is positively biased. In the current studies, we explore age-related changes in the impact of emotional future simulation on subsequent memory. METHODS In Experiment 1, younger and older adults simulated emotional future events before learning the hypothetical outcome of each event via narratives. Memory was assessed for emotional details contained in those narratives. In Experiment 2, a shorter temporal delay between simulation and narrative encoding was used to reduce decay of simulation memory over time. RESULTS Future simulation did not bias subsequent memory for older adults in Experiment 1. However, older adults performed similar to younger adults in Experiment 2, with more liberal responses to positive information after positive simulation. DISCUSSION The impact of an optimistic outlook on subsequent memory is reduced with age, which may be at least partly attributable to declining memory for future simulations over time. This work broadens our understanding of the functional consequences of age-related declines in episodic future simulation and adds to previous work showing reduced benefits of simulation with age on tasks tapping adaptive functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleea L Devitt
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Massachusetts
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Devitt AL, Thakral PP, Szpunar K, Addis DR, Schacter DL. Age-related changes in repetition suppression of neural activity during emotional future simulation. Neurobiol Aging 2020; 94:287-297. [PMID: 32712534 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.06.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2020] [Revised: 06/12/2020] [Accepted: 06/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Despite advances in understanding the consequences of age-related episodic memory decline for future simulation, much remains unknown regarding changes in the neural underpinnings of future thinking with age. We used a repetition suppression paradigm to explore age-related changes in the neural correlates of emotional future simulation. Younger and older adults simulated positive, negative, and neutral future events either 2 or 5 times. Reductions in neural activity for events simulated 5 versus 2 times (i.e., repetition suppression) identify brain regions responsive to the specific emotion of simulated events. Critically, older adults showed greater repetition suppression than younger adults in the temporal pole for negative simulations, and the cuneus for positive simulations. These findings suggest that older adults distance themselves from negative future possibilities by thinking about them in a more semantic way, consistent with the view that older adults down-regulate negative affect and up-regulate positive affect. More broadly this study increases our understanding of the impact of aging on the neural underpinnings of episodic future simulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleea L Devitt
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | | | - Karl Szpunar
- Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Donna Rose Addis
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; School of Psychology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
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Raffard S, Bortolon C, Iniesta F, Macioce V, Gely-Nargeot MC, Van der Linden M. Projecting the self in aging: an exploratory study of self-defining future projections. Memory 2020; 28:632-641. [PMID: 32336202 DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2020.1753778] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
The concept of "Self-Defining Future Projections" (SDFPs) has been recently introduced to better explore the link between future thinking and identity. To date, SDFPs have only been examined in young adults and it remains unknown how self-defining future thoughts evolve in aging. In this cross-sectional study, 43 young adults (age range = 19-28; mean age = 23.06) and 43 older adults (age range 60-80; mean age = 69.46) were asked to generate three SDFPs. Our results indicated that SDFPs were less specific in older adults compared to young adults, but there was no difference between the two groups concerning autobiographical reasoning. However, regarding subjective experience, older adults rated imagined future events as containing more sensory details and contextual information and reported a higher feeling of pre-experiencing the personal future. Additionally, older participants described future events that were more positive and less distant in the future, with fewer narratives about future achievements but more narratives describing leisure time, with a similar probability between the two groups that the event will occur in the future. Our study extends previous aging research and adds to the literature by better understanding how future event representations are formed in older adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stéphane Raffard
- Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Univ. Montpellier, EPSYLON EA, Montpellier, France.,University Department of Adult Psychiatry, La Colombière Hospital, CHU Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Catherine Bortolon
- Laboratoire Inter-universitaire de Psychologie: Personnalité, Cognition et Changement Social, Grenoble, France
| | - Fanny Iniesta
- Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Univ. Montpellier, EPSYLON EA, Montpellier, France
| | - Valérie Macioce
- Clinical Research and Epidemiology Unit, CHU Montpellier, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | | | - Martial Van der Linden
- Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation, Université de Genève, Genève, Suisse
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Corlett H, MacLeod AK. Future-Directed Thinking and Its Relationship to Subjective Well-Being in Older Adults. Int J Aging Hum Dev 2020; 92:338-349. [PMID: 31893937 DOI: 10.1177/0091415019896221] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Age-related changes in future-directed thinking may be important for well-being. Older and younger adults generated idiographic anticipated experiences for the next week, the next year, and the next 5-10 years, using an adapted fluency measure. Relative to younger adults, older adults maintained a focus on the immediate future but frequency of anticipated events declined for the medium and longer term. The presence of negative thoughts for those two more distant time periods was related to lower life satisfaction in older adults. Content differences in thoughts illustrated the differing concerns of the two groups. The results align broadly with previous findings in the literature on socioemotional selectivity theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Holly Corlett
- 3162 Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK
| | - Andrew K MacLeod
- 3162 Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK
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Jing HG, Madore KP, Schacter DL. Not to worry: Episodic retrieval impacts emotion regulation in older adults. Emotion 2019; 20:590-604. [PMID: 30816741 DOI: 10.1037/emo0000581] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Interventions that increase the specificity of episodic memory and future-oriented problem solving have been shown to help both young adults and clinical populations regulate their emotions toward potential stressors. However, little is known about how episodic specificity impacts anxiety levels in older adults, who show reduced specificity of episodic memory, future simulation, and problem-solving performance. Although emotion regulation generally improves with age, older adults still experience worries pertaining to their health and interpersonal relationships. The current studies test how episodic specificity affects emotion regulation in older adults. In Experiment 1, participants received an episodic specificity induction (ESI)-brief training in recollecting details of past experiences-prior to generating steps to solve worrisome problems. Older adults provided more relevant steps and episodic details after the specificity induction relative to a control induction, but we found no difference in emotion regulation ratings between induction conditions. In Experiment 2, we contrasted performance on a personal problem-solving task (i.e., generating steps to solve one's own problems) intended to draw on episodic retrieval with an advice task focused on semantic processing (i.e., listing general advice for an acquaintance worried about similar problems). Participants provided more relevant steps and episodic details in the personal problem-solving task relative to the advice task, and boosts in detail were related to larger reductions in anxiety toward the target worrisome events. These results indicate that solving worrisome problems with greater levels of episodic detail can positively influence emotion regulation in older adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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García-Bajos E, Migueles M, Aizpurua A. Age-Based Positivity Effects in Imagining and Recalling Future Positive and Negative Autobiographical Events. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1700. [PMID: 29021771 PMCID: PMC5623725 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2017] [Accepted: 09/15/2017] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Thoughts about the future reflect personal goals, and projections into the future enrich our emotional life. Researchers have taken an interest in determining whether the tendency to remember more positive than negative emotional events observed when recalling past events also appears when remembering imagined future events. The objective of this study was to examine the age-based positivity effect of recall for future positive and negative autobiographical events in young and older adults. Representative future events were first established to develop the cues used to prompt personal future events. In the production task, the participants were presented with eight positive and eight negative random future events of young or older adults as a model and the corresponding cues to generate their own positive and negative future autobiographical events. In the recall task, the participants recovered as many experiences as they could of the model and the positive and negative events produced by themselves. The participants correctly recalled more positive than negative events and committed more errors for negative than positive events, showing a clear tendency in both young and older adults to recall future imagined events as positive. Regarding age, the young adults recalled more events than the older participants whilst the older participants in particular showed better recall of their own imagined future events than the model’s events, and committed more errors when recalling the model’s events than their own imagined events. Regarding the positivity effect in incorrect recall, more than half of the errors were valence changes, most of these being from negative to positive events, and these valence changes were more pronounced in the older than in the younger adults. In general, there were fewer differences between young and older adults in the recall of positive events in comparison with negative events. Our findings suggest that people are well disposed toward recalling positive imagined future events and preserve a positive emotional state, suppressing negative memories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elvira García-Bajos
- Faculty of Psychology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, San Sebastián, Spain
| | - Malen Migueles
- Faculty of Psychology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, San Sebastián, Spain
| | - Alaitz Aizpurua
- Faculty of Psychology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, San Sebastián, Spain
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