Emotional aging and the recall of autobiographical memories
Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Affective well-being has been found to increase throughout adulthood, and many theories have been proposed to explain this seemingly paradoxical phenomenon. One prominent suggestion that many of these theories have in common is that older adults may become increasingly adept at regulating their emotions by, for instance, avoiding potentially stressful situations. The strength and vulnerability integration (SAVI) framework additionally proposes that older adults may become better at regulating emotional experiences after some time, that is, in retrospect. While previous studies have found that older adults tend to avoid potentially harmful situations more frequently than younger adults do, the notion that older adults are more likely than younger adults to view past life events more positively over time has rarely been investigated. Thus, little is known about age-related differences in the emotional changes of autobiographical memories from the moment of the event to the moment of recall. Research on emotional changes in autobiographical memories primarily focused on the fading affect bias, which refers to the phenomenon whereby, on average, the affect intensity of negative events decreases to a greater extent and more rapidly over time than the affect intensity of positive events. The overall goal of this cumulative dissertation is to examine the processes of emotional aging from a different perspective by examining it in the context of the fading affect bias in autobiographical memories. Four studies focusing on different aspects of this research question were conducted. Study I examined age-related differences in affective well-being in more detail and found that increased affective well-being in older age is evident also when examined through the trait version of the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS). Studies II and III of this thesis focused on the fading affect bias in autobiographical memories. Study II found that the fading affect bias is the result of four different types of affect change in autobiographical memories, which largely depend on the initial affect intensity of events, and become more positive for individuals with higher levels of affective well-being. Study III examined the validity of the fading affect bias, demonstrating that individuals subjectively perceive a fading affect bias in their autobiographical memories, thereby supporting the appropriateness of retrospective methods in fading affect bias research. Finally, Study IV found that the fading affect bias exhibits a U-shaped curve across age: it decreases slightly until around 40 years of age, then increases into oldest age. Taken together, these findings are in accordance with the notion that older adults experience increased affective well-being partly because they view their personal past more positively. In this regard, this thesis demonstrates the relevance of internal stimuli for emotions in explaining age-related differences in affective well-being, thus offering a new perspective on emotional aging that has largely been overlooked
DOI: 10.18725/oparu-58912
Author: Hoehne, Sophie
Language: English
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7120004478