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We tend to become more positive and well affirmed with our decisions as we grow older. Ever wondered how emotion processing occurs as we age with time? Possibly not, right?
A new study (R) conducted by scientists from the McLean hospital have worked to get a better understanding into the differences in emotion processing over the course of our life, from a younger age to the age that we grow older into.
The research delves into gathering a deeper and wider understanding about the reasons why we tend to become more positive with old age and why the phase of adolescence is often inclined more towards the negative social cues in the society.
The study which was titled as “Emotion Sensitivity Across the Lifespan: Mapping Clinical Risk Periods to Sensitivity to Facial Emotion Intensity” was recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
For conducting the study, the researchers did create a digital test of emotion sensitivity to be answered by nearly 10,000 men and women in between the age range from 10 to 85.
In this test, the participants had to witness and observe the subtle differences in the facial cues of fear, anger as well as happiness in the test conducted. The test also did hint towards the how people from different age groups did react to the displayed changes in the sensitivity to these changes in the facial emotions altogether.
The researchers used the platform testmybrain.org for this specific study. Rutter, who is the lead author of the study and a research fellow at McLean Hospital’s Laboratory for Brain and Cognitive Health Technology was the one who explained the process of the conducted study.
According to Rutter, the participants of the study were shown two faces simultaneously and the same was followed up with some questions like, “Which face is more angry?”, “Which face is more happy?” or “Which face is more fearful?” She further explained stating that the online test conducted provided with a much more diverse and much larger sample set.
The senior author of the study, Germine further exclaimed stating that this new testing method along with the larger sample size did provide with a better understanding into the process of emotion processing.
The researchers were well versed with the understanding of the fact how the daily experiences of an adolescent differs from a middle aged or even an old person. The main aim of the study was to find how these experiences on a daily basis had impacts on the emotional process of an individual. They wanted to compare these differences in the varying emotion categories.
With the results from their study, the researchers also worked around to find how the emotional sensitivity develops during the adolescent period.
Throwing some light on this prospect, Rutter clarified stating that the sensitivity to the anger issues did get better dramatically during early to mid-adolescence period. She further emphasized stating that this is the phase that the young boys and girls are more attuned to be under the grasp of social threats like bullying and such.
On the other prospect, it was found that the sensitivity to the facial cues for fear and anger did decline with age but the ability to detect happiness was found to have been static all throughout. All with the findings in the differences in the emotional perspectives, the researchers did affirm the fact that it is factually true that old people tend to have a better and positive emotions and outlook on life.
With the established findings concerning the emotion processing and the conclusions, the researchers are further looking into the matter to see how the same does end up impacting the overall course of mental health issues like that of anxiety.
