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Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
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Age Differences in Physiological Reactivity to Daily Emotional Experiences
Yoobin Park1, Amie M Gordon2, Wendy Berry Mendes1
1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA USA.
Affective Science
|September 25, 2023
Summary
Older adults show reduced physiological reactivity to daily emotional experiences, including heart rate and blood pressure changes. This age-related difference in emotional response has implications for lifelong physical health.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Gerontology
- Cardiovascular Physiology
Background:
- Understanding age-related changes in emotional processing and physiological responses is crucial for health.
- Previous research often relies on lab-based emotion induction, limiting real-world applicability.
- Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) offers a method to study emotions and physiology in daily life.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age differences in physiological reactivity (heart rate and blood pressure) to naturally occurring emotional experiences.
- To examine the prevalence of different emotions across age groups in daily life.
- To explore how emotion valence and arousal influence age-related physiological differences.
Main Methods:
- Utilized two large datasets from ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies.
- Analyzed 134,723 daily reports from 14,436 individuals assessing emotions and physiological measures.
- Compared heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) reactivity between older and younger adults during daily emotional events.
Main Results:
- Older adults reported experiencing positive emotions more frequently than younger adults.
- A significant association was found between older age and reduced heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) reactivity.
- The magnitude of age-related differences in physiological reactivity may vary based on the valence and arousal of experienced emotions.
Conclusions:
- Age is linked to diminished physiological responses to everyday emotional experiences.
- Findings suggest altered emotional-physiological coupling across the lifespan.
- These results have implications for understanding the role of emotions in physical health throughout aging.
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