Age Difference Of Emotion Regulation Strategies And Its Relationship With Well-Being

The purpose of this research is to explore the age difference of the usage and effect of emotion regulation strategy in up-regulating positive emotions and down-regulating negative emotions,to examine the selection,optimization,and compensation with emotion regulation(SOC-ER)and Strength and Vulnerability Integration(SAVI),and to explore the relationship between the usage and effect of emotion regulation and well-being based on the process model of emotion regulation.Both laboratory and daily life scenarios were used to examine how young and older people’s emotion regulation strategy usage and effect in different valences(negative,nutural and positive)and intensities(high and low)of emotional stimuli.In study 1,age difference of emotion regulation strategy usage of cognitive reappraisal and attention distraction and its relationship with well-being were examined.In study 2,participants could select emotion regulation strategies freely and were asked to report,and Cohen’s d was used as an index of emotion regulation strategy.In study 3,an interview about emotion regulation strategies usage was conducted to further improve the ecology validity.It was found that older participants were able to up-regulate the valance of low intensity positive emotions,and down-regulate the valance and intensity of low intensity negative emotions,while young participants were able to up-regulate valence and intensity of low intensity positive emotions and down-regulate valance of high intensity negative emotions,which proved that high intensity would cause great physical flexibility burdens for older people and impact their emotion regulation strategy effect,and provided empirical evidence for the selection,optimization,and compensation with emotion regulation(SOC-ER);Older people’s well-being was higher than young people,and the well-being of older people was relevant to their effects of up-regulating positive emotions in low intensity and down-regulating negative emotions in high intensity,thus,both would improve well-being of older people according to Strength and Vulnerability Integration(SAVI).