27:) is a life-span theory of motivation. The theory maintains that as time horizons shrink, as they typically do with age, people become increasingly selective, investing greater resources in emotionally meaningful goals and activities. According to the theory, motivational shifts also influence cognitive processing. Aging is associated with a relative preference for positive over negative information in individuals who have had rewarding relationships. This selective narrowing of social interaction maximizes positive emotional experiences and minimizes emotional risks as individuals become older. According to this theory, older adults systematically hone their social networks so that available social partners satisfy their emotional needs.
86:– older adults report better control of their emotions and fewer negative emotions than do younger adults. At the same time, culture seems to color how aging-related effects impact one's emotional life: Whereas older Americans were shown to de-emphasize negative experiences more than younger Americans, no such effect has been observed in Japan. Instead, older Japanese were shown to assign a greater value to positive aspects of otherwise negative experiences than younger Japanese, whereas no such effect has been observed in the U.S.
58:
does not reveal any information about one’s health, personality, cognitive development, role in social life, and social status. Evaluating old age within the framework of various biological, psychological, and sociological factors makes it easier for researchers to obtain more detailed and specific results. Regardless of the characteristics selected to assess old age, it is possible to say that aging has biological, physiological, psychological, and sociological impacts on individuals, either positive or negative.
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negative information and more likely to be distorted in a positive direction. This version of the positivity effect was coined by Laura L. Carstensen's research team. There is a debate about the cross-cultural generalizability of the aging-related positivity effect, with some evidence for different types of emotional processing among
Americans as compared to Japanese.
50:," in which an individual, usually a young and physically healthy individual, unreasonably believes (either consciously or unconsciously) that their time horizons are more limited than they actually are, with the effect that the individual undervalues long-term goals and long-run pleasure and instead disproportionately pursues short-term goals and pleasure, thereby
139:
actively engage the mPFC differently from younger adults, which in turn yields diverging amygdala activation patterns. The opposite pattern was observed for words. Although older adults showed a positivity effect in memory for words, they did not display one for pictures. Thus, the positivity effect may arise from ageing differences in MPFC use during encoding.
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also refers to age differences in emotional attention and memory. As people get older, they experience fewer negative emotions and they tend to look to the past in a positive light. In addition, compared with younger adults' memories, older adults' memories are more likely to consist of positive than
34:
When people perceive their future as open ended, they tend to focus on future-oriented and development- or knowledge-related goals, but when they feel that time is running out and the opportunity to reap rewards from future-oriented goals' realization is dwindling, their focus tends to shift towards
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However, the positivity effect may be different for stimuli processed automatically (pictures) and stimuli processed in a more controlled manner (words). Compared to words, pictures tend to be processed more rapidly and they engage emotion processing centres earlier. Automatic stimuli are processed
30:
The theory also focuses on the types of goals that individuals are motivated to achieve. Knowledge-related goals aim at knowledge acquisition, career planning, the development of new social relationships and other endeavors that will pay off in the future. Emotion-related goals are aimed at emotion
57:
The thought of nearing “the end” leads to an increased orientation toward social and emotional targets. Here, “the end” signifies death, which is generally associated with chronological old age. However, it would be inaccurate to limit old age to chronological aging because one’s chronological age
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and dorsal MPFC, whereas controlled stimuli are processed in the temporal pole and ventral MPFC. Compared to younger adults, older adults showed less amygdala activation and more MPFC activation for negative than positive pictures. Increased motivation to regulate emotion leads older adults to
125:
One theory of the positivity effect in older adults' memories is that it is produced by cognitive control mechanisms that improve and decrease negative information due to older adults' greater focus on emotional regulation. Research shows an age-related reversal in the valence of information
103:
and eye-tracking methods). However, the effect also differs across cultures. For example, Hong Kong
Chinese looked away from happy stimuli and more towards fearful stimuli, and the difference in attention pattern was related to differences in self-construal.
39:, young adulthood vs. old adulthood), but the shift in goal priorities is a gradual process that begins in early adulthood. Importantly, the theory contends that the cause of these goal shifts is not age itself,
142:
Recent study by Helene Fung's group in China
University in Hong Kong and Deep Longevity utilized artificial intelligence to show that people who are unhappy and lonely have accelerated biological age.
697:
Lockenhoff, Corinna E.; Carstensen, Laura L. (2004). "Socioemotional
Selectivity Theory, Aging, and Health: The Increasingly Delicate Balance Between Regulating Emotions and Making Tough Choices".
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Fung, H. H.; Lu, A. Y.; Goren, D.; Isaacowitz, D. M.; Wadlinger; Wilson, H. R. (2008). "Age-related positivity enhancement is not universal: older
Chinese look away from positive stimuli".
736:
Fung, Helene H.; Carstensen, Laura L. (2004). "Motivational
Changes in Response to Blocked Goals and Foreshortened Time: Testing Alternatives to Socioemotional Selectivity Theory".
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Fung, H. H.; Isaacowitz, D. M.; Lu, A. Y.; Li, T. (2010). "Interdependent self-construal moderates the age-related negativity reduction effect in memory and visual attention".
130:(MPFC). In younger adults, more MPFC activity was found in the presence of negative stimuli compared to positive stimuli whereas in older adults this was reversed.
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Studies have found that older adults are more likely than younger adults to pay more attention to positive than to negative stimuli (as assessed by the
31:
regulation, the pursuit of emotionally gratifying interactions with social partners and other pursuits whose benefits can be realized in the present.
309:
Grossmann, Igor; Karasawa, Mayumi; Kan, Chiemi; Kitayama, Shinobu (2014). "A cultural perspective on emotional experiences across the life span".
587:"Optimizing future well-being with artificial intelligence: self-organizing maps (SOMs) for the identification of islands of emotional stability"
422:
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Pruzan, Katherine; Isaacowitz, Derek M. (2006). "An
Attentional Application of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory in College Students".
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Carstensen, Laura L.; Isaacowitz, Derek M.; Charles, Susan T. (1999). "Taking time seriously: A theory of socioemotional selectivity".
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Carstensen, Laura L.; Mikels, Joseph A. (2005). "At the
Intersection of Emotion and Cognition. Aging and the Positivity Effect".
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Leclerc, C.; Kensinger, E. (2011). "Neural processing of emotional pictures and words: A comparison of young and older adults".
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495:"Effects of aging on functional connectivity of the amygdala during negative evaluation: A network analysis of fMRI data"
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Carstensen, L. L. (1992). "Motivation for social contact across the life span: A theory of socioemotional selectivity".
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This justified shift in perspective is the rational equivalent of the psychological perceptual disorder known as "
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present-oriented and emotion- or pleasure-related goals. Research on this theory often compares age groups (
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Galkin, Fedor; Kochetov, Kirill; Keller, Michelle; Zhavoronkov, Alex; Etcoff, Nancy (2022-06-20).
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Researchers have found that across diverse samples – ranging from
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HARORLI, Emre (2020-10-15). Aydin, Hatice; Kurnaz, Aysel (eds.).
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Fung, Helene H.; Carstensen, Laura L.; Lutz, Amy M. (1999).
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and often even actively reducing their long-term prospects.
438:"The Influence of a Sense of Time on Human Development"
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List of papers related to aging and positivity effect
827:"The Theory Behind the Age-Related Positivity Effect"
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sfn error: no target: CITEREFMatherCarstensen2005 (
52:diverting resources from investment for the future
882:Positivity effect and cognitive control in aging
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493:St. Jacques, P; Dolcos, F; Cabeza, R (2010).
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511:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.03.012
263:"Socioemotional Selectivity Theory"
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90:Positivity effect in older adults
17:Socioemotional selectivity theory
810:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00348.x
779:10.1046/j.1467-9507.2006.00344.x
721:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2004.00301.x
649:Nebraska Symposium on Motivation
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544:Developmental Neuropsychology
193:. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
556:10.1080/87565641.2010.549864
417:Mather & Carstensen 2005
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682:10.1037/0003-066X.54.3.165
436:Carstensen, L. L. (2006).
358:10.1037/0882-7974.23.2.440
232:10.1037/0882-7974.14.4.595
189:Santrock, John W. (2002).
750:10.1037/0882-7974.19.1.68
844:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00339
128:medial prefrontal cortex
62:Cross-cultural incidence
831:Frontiers in Psychology
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670:American Psychologist
604:10.18632/aging.204061
499:Neurobiology of Aging
126:processed within the
738:Psychology and Aging
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346:Psychology and Aging
220:Psychology and Aging
48:foreshortened future
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101:dot-probe paradigm
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