Older People Generally More Emotionally Healthy, Better Able to Resist Daily Temptations
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Older people generally more emotionally healthy, better able to resist daily temptations:
The stereotype of grumpy old people apparently doesn't hold up under closer inspection. A new study from Duke and Vanderbilt University psychologists finds that older people are generally more emotionally stable and better able to resist temptations in their daily lives.
"There is evidence here that emotional health and regulation improve with age," said Daisy Burr, a Duke PhD student who led the study with Gregory Samanez-Larkin, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience. Their work appeared March 23 in the journal Emotion.
[...] The researchers said their findings are a better reflection of real-world conditions because they surveyed participants in their own time and space, rather than having them respond to cues in a laboratory setting. Burr added that older people are better at regulating their emotional state when allowed to do what they want.
In the end, Burr's analysis of the data found people experiencing more negative affect are worse at resisting desires. Younger study participants who had higher levels of life satisfaction were better able to resist desires.
But older adults were better at resisting temptation, regardless of their life satisfaction.
Daisy A. Burr, Jaime J. Castrellon, David H. Zald, Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin. Emotion dynamics across adulthood in everyday life: Older adults are more emotionally stable and better at regulating desires.. Emotion, 2020; DOI: 10.1037/emo0000734
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