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Resilience at Information Processing Level in Older Adults: Maintained Attention for Happy Faces when Positive Mood is Low

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2017

Ineke Demeyer ,
Inke Urbain  and
Rudi De Raedt
Ineke Demeyer*
Affiliation:
Ghent University (Belgium)
Inke Urbain
Affiliation:
WZC OLV van Lourdes Wakken VZW (Belgium)
Rudi De Raedt
Affiliation:
Ghent University (Belgium)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ineke Demeyer. Ghent University. Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology. Henri Dunantlaan 2, B–9000. Ghent (Belgium). Phone: +329–2649411. Fax: +329–2646489. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Even though ageing is associated with declining cognitive capabilities, research has demonstrated an age-related improvement in affective well-being. This improvement can be related to increased resilience, developing as changes in emotion regulation at information-processing level. During negative mood, emotion regulation becomes a priority as demonstrated by an increased preference for positive over negative information in older adults. However, the effect of a positive mood on older adult’s attentional preferences has not been established yet. To investigate this, 37 older adults were randomly assigned to a relaxation or a control condition (music). Mood state was assessed before and after the manipulation. Attentional bias was measured by an exogenous cueing task, in which the location of the target was correctly or incorrectly cued by happy, sad or neutral facial pictures. Both groups showed a decrease in negative mood (p < .001, 95% CI [2.73, 5.97], d = .82) without changes in positive mood. The relaxation group showed a significantly bigger increase in feeling relaxed (p = .017, η2p = .15). No significant group differences were found for attentional bias. However, over the whole group, less positive mood after the manipulation was associated with more maintained attention for positive information (r = –.49, p < .01). These results indicate that older adults deploy emotion regulation strategies in attention during low positive mood. Flexible attentional processing of emotional information might serve as a resilience factor to maintain well-being during later stages of life.

Keywords

attentional biasolder adultspositive moodrelaxationresilience
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 20 , 2017 , E53
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2017 

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Footnotes

we would like to thank the WZC O.L.V van Lourdes in Wakken for their collaboration with the recruitment and testing of their residents. This work was supported by a Grant BOF10/GOA/014 for a Concerted Research Action of Ghent University awarded to Rudi De Raedt and by a grant for an interuniversity research group PIPO [I/00125/01].

How to cite this article:

Demeyer, I., Urbain, I., & De Raedt, R. (2017). Resilience at information processing level in older adults: Maintained attention for happy faces when positive mood is low. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 20. e53. Doi:10.1017/sjp.2017.45

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