PROJECT SUMMARY – AGE AND THE REGULATION OF EMOTIONS.
A. CONTEXT
Regulation of emotion involves implementing strategies to control the subjective experience and/or outward
signs of emotion. Good regulation of emotion has been argued to be important in: life satisfaction, mental
health, occupational effectiveness, and relationship success. Regulating the display of emotion has social
benefits, for example when suppressing laughter at a public faux pas. However, despite this evidence that
the ability to control our emotions is critical in many life skills, very few studies have investigated the effects
of aging on emotion regulation.
Most authors who discuss age effects on emotional processing have taken a sociocognitive perspective.
Sociocognitive theories propose that with age there is increased ability to regulate emotions due to greater
life experience of emotion control strategies. In particular, it is argued that older adults are more skilled at reevaluating negative emotions such as anger. Anecdotal reports also suggest that people experience better
emotional control as they age. No previous study has investigated age differences in emotion regulation
using a range of subjective and experimental measures, including systematic manipulation of regulation
strategies.
An alternative neuropsychological theory of aging and emotional regulation can be proposed, which
emphasises the localisation of age changes in the brain. Normal aging causes localised neurophysiological
changes: most dramatically in the frontal lobes of the brain, with consequences for control processes of
cognition. Clinical and neuroimaging studies indicate that the frontal lobes are also involved in emotional
regulation. Patients with severe damage to the frontal lobes often show poor regulation of emotions such as
anger, with devastating effects on social relationships. The pattern of frontal lobe changes in the brain in the
course of adult aging therefore suggests that older adults may encounter some difficulties with the control of
emotions. However, neuropsychological studies of aging have largely ignored emotional processes.
Two contrasting predictions can be made about the effects of age on emotion regulation. A sociocognitive
approach predicts age improvement in emotion regulation, due to life experience of emotion control
strategies. A neuropsychological approach predicts age decline in emotion regulation, due to the pattern of
brain changes with age.
B. OBJECTIVES
We propose to investigate the effects of adult aging on the regulation of emotions using a range of
paradigms. The project will address the following issues:
 Does adult aging improve or impair the regulation of emotion?
 Does age influence particular aspects of emotional regulation, such as the control of negative emotions,
or the facial expressions displayed in emotional situations?
 Do tasks which assess the function of frontal lobes of the brain predict age differences in emotion
regulation?
 Does good emotion regulation predict quality of life in older adults?
C. SIGNIFICANCE AND ORIGINALITY
By taking a wide variety of measures of emotion regulation the current project will enrich current
understanding of the nature and scope of emotional control processes. A number of authors highlight the
possible importance of emotional regulation in adult social functioning, but there have been relatively few
studies on this topic. There are no published studies using a range of methods to investigate age effects on
emotion regulation. This project would provide a rich source of data on this topic, and provide evidence to
evaluate sociocognitive and neuropsychological perspectives on the control of emotion. The applicants have
a range of expertise in social psychology, cognitive psychology and neuropsychology which will combine to
provide a novel approach to investigating age effects on emotions. Emotional regulation has been argued to
be a key factor in mental health and life satisfaction, so greater understanding of emotional regulation and
how it is affected by aging will have important clinical significance.