Emotional function during aging

Abstract

This chapter reviews the literature on age-related change in discrete emotions, current models and theories of emotional aging. It introduces an integrated perspective of aging and emotion (IPAE), intended to provide a comprehensive view of how aging may differentially affect the generation and regulation of discrete emotions. The chapter focuses on normal aging, although the boundary between normal and pathological brain aging can be vague, and many of the principles have implications for aging associated with the numerous psychiatric and neurological conditions that impact emotion. It also focuses on general trends in emotional functioning associated with aging, but also considers important individual differences. It is notable that age-related increases in the complexity of emotional experience occurs across both positive and negative emotion domains. The chapter elaborates current theories and models proposed to explain these age-related patterns in the generation and regulation of emotion.