title: Speaking about feelings: Further evidence for multidirectional age differences in anger and sadness.
abstract: This study investigated age differences in anger and sadness in a sample of 82 younger (Mage = 26, SDage = 4.05) and 80 older (Mage = 70, SDage = 3.95) adults. Participants were instructed to first relive a personal memory that was characterized by either anger or sadness and to subsequently think aloud about this memory. Across different emotional response systems (i.e., subjective feelings, verbal expressions, facial behaviors, physiological arousal), older adults reacted with less anger than did their younger counterparts, whereas age differences in sadness were less pronounced. Together the findings corroborate the idea that age differences in negative emotional reactivity are multidirectional and suggest that a discrete emotions approach may complement dimensional approaches to emotional aging. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig.
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kunzmann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig.
authors.forename: Margund
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rohr
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig.
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wieck
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig.
authors.forename: Cathleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kappes
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Concordia University.
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wrosch
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000786:Anger; D001143:Arousal; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D008875:Middle Aged; D013850:Thinking; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D055815:Young Adult