Jacob W. Gurera

Prior research suggests individuals can reappraise autonomic arousal under stress to improve performance. However, it is unclear whether arousal reappraisal effects are apparent at all ages. Seventy-three younger and 47 older adults received guided instruction to be in a state of challenge or threat while completing a mental arithmetic task. In addition to reporting on coping appraisals during the task, participants' physiological reactivity was assessed; changes in cardiac output (CO) and tonic skin conductance are reported. Participants in the challenge condition (compared to those in the threat condition) perceived greater coping resources, fewer perceived demands, and greater task performance; this pattern was similar for both age groups. Younger adults showed greater CO and tonic skin conductance changes than older adults, yet condition effects on physiological reactivity were only observed within the older sample. These findings suggest that despite physiological differences in aging, older adults may still benefit behaviorally from reappraising arousal to be a sign of a challenge. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

When managing their emotions, individuals often recruit the help of others; however, most emotion regulation research has focused on self-regulation. Theories of emotion and aging suggest younger and older adults differ in the emotion regulation strategies they use when regulating their own emotions. If how individuals regulate their own emotions and the emotions of others are related, these theorised age differences may also emerge for interpersonal emotion regulation. In two studies, younger and older adults’ intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation strategy choices were examined via self-report and behavioural assessments of regulating the emotions of another participant (Study 1; N = 80) and of a virtual human (Study 2; N = 100). Across both studies, younger adults reported greater intrapersonal suppression but not greater reappraisal. Younger and older adults were generally similar (supported by Bayesian analyses) for both self-reported and behavioural interpersonal emotion regulation strategies. Behavioural interpersonal emotion regulation was not related to self-reported intra- and interpersonal preferences. These results suggest interpersonal emotion regulation in ageing may show distinct patterns from theorised age differences in intrapersonal emotion regulation.