1. The many emotions across the adult life span, and how we interpret them Susan Charles, Ph.D.

2. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

3. Aging Strength Situation Selection Situation Modification Attention Deployment Cognitive Appraisals Memory Change in perspective Time left (SST) Time lived Awareness of Limitations + + Emotional Well-Being (WB) WB before a negative event (overall well- being) WB during and shortly after negative event WB long after a Negative Event + Reduced Physiological Flexibility + Vulnerability Prolonged HPA arousal Decreased cellular Inhibition Increased blood pressure + + SAVI Strength and Vulnerability Integration Charles, 2010 Luong & Charles, 2013

4. The relationship between respondents’ age and subjective well-being as a function of their country’s GDP, after controlling for other individual differences (gender, marital status, employment status, subjective health, subjective income, social contact, and religiosity). Hannah J. Swift et al. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2014;geronb.gbu011 © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

5. Negative Affect Mean level; Maximum that day

6. Positive Affect

8. Which emotions? cheerful, in good spirits, extremely happy, calm and peaceful, satisfied, full of life, enthusiastic, attentive, proud, active, close to others, like you belong, and confident. feeling worthless, so sad nothing could cheer you up, nervous, restless or fidgety, hopeless, that everything was an effort, worthless, afraid, jittery, irritable, ashamed, upset, lonely, angry, and frustrated

9. Groups: ~42 years-old; ~58 years-old (individual differences in emotional experience) Angry/ Anxious Sadness Positive Affect.48.58 -.49 -.50 -.39 -.35

10. Oldest Age Group - ~74 years-old (individual differences in emotional experience) Angry/ Anxious Sadness Positive Affect Low Arousal.44.70 -.42 -.31-.30 -.21 Positive Affect High Arousal

11. Daily Architecture of Emotions: Negative Emotions

12. Daily Architecture of Emotions: Positive Emotions Agentic Social Cheerful Agentic/ Social Content Cheerful Relatively younger Adults (~42 years-old) Middle age group (~58 years-old) and oldest (~74 years-old)

13. Emotions experienced when talking with: Close friends, family members, new friends Happy, pride, accomplished, amused, joy, contentment, interest, excited Fear, anger, sad, shame, irritable, frustrated, bored, anxiety, guilty, disgust, embarrassed

14. Accomplishment

15. Amused

16. Irritable

17. In our investigative and interpretive journey… Positive more “mixed” than negative  Negative more embedded in evolution  Positive more embedded in culture o How does this phenomenon “feel”? o When are they taking place? (context) o When are they useful? Focus on situations/environments

18. Thank you David Almeida, Ph.D. Jennifer Piazza, Ph.D. Laura Carstensen, Ph.D. Jacqueline Mogle, Ph.D. Gloria Luong, Ph.D. Kate Leger Emily Urban NIH/NIA: R01AG042431; P01 AG020166, R01 AG019239