Recently, the focus in gerontology has expanded from trying to avoid age- related decline to also trying to promote optimal aging. One key component of optimal aging is maintaining or even enhancing emotional well-being over the life span (Baltes & Baltes 1990; Lawton, 2001; Rowe & Kahn, 1987). The traditional stereotype of old age depicts a period of evitable and continuous loss, with decreased subjective well-being. However, although negative life events tend to become more frequent and cognitive function and health tend to decline as people get older, emotional well-being does not appear to be compromised by the aging process. In fact, accumulating evidence indicates that healthy emotional aging - characterized by an overall enhancement of emotional experience across the life span - is part of normal human development (see Carstensen, Mikels, & Mather, 2006; Charles & Carstensen, 2007; Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). Theories of aging must explain this phenomenon. How is it that older adults have such emotionally gratifying lives in the face of significant losses? In this chapter, we attempt to explain the surprising robustness of emotional well-being in aging by integrating perspectives from cognition, emotion, and neuroscientific research. First, we review evidence that emotional well-being improves with age and discuss how age-related changes in goals motivate older adults to pursue emotionally gratifying experiences. Next, we present behavioural evidence that older adults use cognitive control to enhance their current emotional states. Then we use research findings from cognitive neuroscience to outline the requirements of implementing emotion regulation–focused strategies. We then evaluate older adults’ capacity to exert cognitive control given the trajectory of cognitive and brain function in aging. Finally, we present findings indicating that older adults use cognitive resources to regulate emotion. In this chapter, we argue that older adults use strategic control processes to achieve their emotional goals within the limitations of age-related changes to neural structures. The intersection of neurological function and affective goals in aging indicates that cognitive function—particularly executive function—is a critical factor in promoting emotional well-being in late life. Our theoretical framework emphasizes older adults’ power in determining their own emotional destiny. Cognitive control allows people to direct attention and memory in ways that help satisfy emotional needs. Using cognitive control as an emotion regulation tool becomes increasingly useful with advancing age as emotional well-being takes on more importance to those with more limited futures. (Author/publisher)
Abstract