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21 - Emotions and Successful Aging

from Part II - Psychosocial Factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

By
Constança Paúl
Edited by
Rocío Fernández-Ballesteros ,
Athanase Benetos  and
Jean-Marie Robine
Rocío Fernández-Ballesteros
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Athanase Benetos
Affiliation:
Université de Lorraine and Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM) Nancy
Jean-Marie Robine
Affiliation:
INSERM
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Summary

This chapter aims to explore emotions during the aging process, and the contribution of emotional regulation to successful aging. Wisdom and socio-emotional selectivity theories framed successful aging. Other theories, as positive psychology, happiness, and broaden-and-built theory, where also brought to disentangle successful aging. The development of cognition and emotion along the life span brings positivity and subjectivity into logic thinking. Learning appears as the main mechanism underlying this evolution. The older adults prioritize affective issues over logic ones. This happens, not because people cannot behave differently but because affect and cognition evolve, namely through learning, to a different adaptive way. Old people use a more affective and subjective approach to physical and social environment, which contributes to successful aging.

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The Cambridge Handbook of Successful Aging , pp. 372 - 383
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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