Psychology

Emotions are part of normal human life. The release of emotions is especially greatly significant in a persons daily life as it could greatly influence how one performs his or her role in the society and how one handles his or her relationship with other people. As people grow old and mature, their emotional reactions change together with their ages. The release of emotions for younger people becomes different when they turn into adults. One of the explored topics focused on aging is about the emotional regulation of old people. Older people are often perceived to be more prone to depression and sadness and to be easily tensioned. The image of low emotion may come from the reality that older people experience frequent illnesses and have weaker bodies (Schiebe  Carstensen, 2010, p. 135). Aside form their physically weak disposition, old people are also believed to be easily affected of what is happening around them, and they experience more difficulty in managing how they would express their feelings. However, this portrayal is not always true because studies indicate that older people tend to handle their emotions better than younger individuals.
 
Different studies have been conducted for years proving that older adults are really capable of managing their emotions amidst any circumstances that befell them. According to available literature on the topic on emotional aging, older adults tend to regulate their emotions and reactions to tensions or problems better compared to younger people (Birditt, Almeida,  Fingerman, 2005, p. 330). Studies have recognized that the processing of emotions differ in different age levels because the capacity to handle and assert emotions also progresses together with the years that pass.

Scheibe and Blanchard-Fields (2009) explored in their study entitled Effects of Regulating Emotions on Cognitive Performance What Is Costly for Young Adults Is Not So Costly for Older Adults the effect of negative emotions released by a trigger event. In the case of the study, it was a disgust-inducing film clip for older people and how they cope up with this phenomenon. The film clip was shown to 91 young and 116 old participants, all from a metropolitan city and with high cognitive function. For the first part of the experiment, a neutral film was shown and the memory performance of both populations was tested. In the second part, the researchers made use of a disgust-evoking clip. This event triggered the results of the study because the older adults reaction and emotional control was compared to how the younger peoples regulation of emotion when they are faced with negative situations such as the clip in the second part of the experiment. This experimental method used by the researchers produced relevant and clear results on how efficient are adults in regulating their emotions compared to the younger people. The results show that the performance of the younger population is highly affected by their difficulty to control or suppress emotions that are stimulated by negative things.

Scheibe and Blanchard-Fields (2009) study disproved the typically expected findings that younger people would remain unaffected with the instruction to down-regulate emotion. In fact, older people have an easier time regulating their emotions and it becomes less costly for them to perform their tasks well. For the younger population, managing and down-regulating their emotions after being induced with disgust-provoking scenes was more demanding, and this posed problems in their cognitive performance because they could not think clearly and more effort was needed to keep their attention to their actions intact (Scheibe  Blanchard-Fields, 2009, p. 221).  Older participants managed to keep their performances improving even when they were asked to down-regulate their emotional feeling of disgust because controlling their emotions demands lesser efforts from adults. This study, along with other related studies, shows that older people could execute better control of emotions, even those emotions that resulted from negative stimuli (Scheibe  Blanchard-Fields, 2009, p. 218). Emotional regulation is more costly for the younger population because they become very vulnerable when they release more effort in order to continue whatever they are doing, given that they have just faced negative situations.

As emotions are big factors of peoples daily lives and are significant in the performance of their roles, studies about emotional aging are very significant to the society. Scheibe and Blanchard-Fields (2009) research, together with other available scholarly studies prove the theory that adults and older people could manage their emotions, moods, and reactions better than younger people. Individuals, as a whole, control the emotions that they have consciously or unconsciously. However, as emotional behavior is greatly influenced by lessons gained through years of experience, older people have the advantage and confidence that they can regulate their control better than young people (Scheibe  Carstensen, 2010, p. 137). This theory could also be tested in other modes of experimentation and evaluated based on different experiences that are brought about by ones relationships with other people. After all, our emotions, be they positive or negative, are evoked by our interaction with other people and our exposure to different events around us. Even in handling tension-filled occurrences and irritable situations, adults could manage their emotions better than the younger population.

People, no matter what gender, become better in handling their emotions and dealing with their problems as they age (Birditt, Almeida,  Fingerman, 2005, p. 338). They learn to be more adaptable to their environment and could easily handle tight situations and incidents. The adaptability of people to different experiences does not only depend on how much negative stimuli they are exposed to rather it is on the preparedness of the person in emotional pressure and how capable they are of regulating their emotions and suppressing them.

There are several reasons why adult people tend to become better in down-regulating their emotions and responding to their different moods. Life-span theories conclude that older people are better in handling problems because they have richer cognitive maturity and emotional stability in interpersonal relationships (Birditt et al., 2005, p. 337). Mature adults are less likely to be emotional and destructive when they are going through tension-filled situations, thus helping them to be passively constructive in their outlook of negative event and become better participants in the society. Their relationships with other people tend to become smoother and easier to manage as they grow older as well. Also, older people tend to be less distressed with what is happening around them rather, it had become easy for them to reconcile their feelings with their experiences and to act more than to react.

In Scheibe and Blanchard-Fields (2009) study, they proved that emotion regulation differs according to group ages and the management of emotions also leads to different effects. The researchers attributed the better performance of the older population with the fact that they were less distracted of the disgusting incident and more focused on the task given to them. Distraction from negative things and focusing on other more important things is easier for mature adults because they have been through many experiences already. This is an effective tool for regulating emotion and suppressing unwanted feelings. Many of the participants in the study successfully improved their performance by distracting themselves from the memories of the film clip (Scheibe  Blanchard-Field, 2009, p. 221). However, more than distraction, the study showed that being older and having more experiences in life enabled them to regulate their emotions better and reduce the cognitive costs that can cause lower performance for them. Because older people have been through more than the younger population, they can easily analyze the problem and prepare their emotions faster. Younger people have harder time suppressing their hyperactive thoughts and emotions that allow them to overanalyze and perform poorly in their performances.

Indeed, emotional aging does improve as the person grows older and matures. Studies in emotional aging can also help improve the quality of life for older people because it educates people on how to understand and motivate people who are very old already (Scheibe  Carstensen, 2010, p. 136). Aging people are not only prone to sad emotions in fact most of the older population have indeed become more ready in controlling their emotions and handling distressing situations because of all the experiences they have had in their lifetime (Scheibe  Carstensen, 2010. Being oriented on a persons ability to manage his or her emotions helps one to know how to address his or her potential needs in life and what things would he more likely value or disregard. One also gets to know what would help a person enhance his or her performance and motivate him or her to live more productively.

Other than the scientific researches explored in this paper, the studies that center on the relationship of age with the capacity of a person to regulate emotions are many and all necessary. As people grow older, they also become more mature and critical in their way of thinking and handling of negative or positive experiences. The growth in maturity level brought by aging helps people become better in regulating emotions, moods, and reactions based on what would be necessary and beneficial to them and their daily performances.