Affective experiences and implicit representation of affect valence in young, middle-aged and older adults: Evidence based on ecological momentary assessment and implicit association test

The current study examined adult age differences in emotional well-being and emotion-regulation motivation in the Indian context using the ecological momentary assessment (EMA) (experience sampling), self-reported preferences for affect-valence and the Implicit Association Test (IAT, to measure implicit mental representations of affect valence) across three age groups. Findings reveal an overall preference for positive affect, feeling of pleasantness in daily life and a greater prevalence for pro-hedonic than contra-hedonic motivation. Middle-aged and older adults reported greater experience of positive than negative affect, (t[87] = 4.77, p = .013) and (t[87] = 13.93, p < .001, respectively) compared to younger adults, which may be attributed to changes in the motivation for emotionally meaningful goals, consistent with the socioemotional selectivity theory. The IAT showed a greater distinctiveness between positive and negative affect valence among older adults than middle-aged and young adults (greater D₁ scores among older adults than younger (2.35) and middle-aged adults (2.15) (t[27] = −2.56, p = .007) and (t[27] = −2.93, p = .002), respectively), which may be modulated by cognitive control and motivation for emotion regulation. Additionally, very few instances of mixed affect (feeling sad to be happy or enjoying being sad) and contra-hedonic motivation (in comparison to what has been observed so far in western cohorts) were reported across the three age groups in this study (age × motivation × valence, F[2, 87] = 1.77. p = .17). We observed reductions in heterogeneity and a greater discriminability with respect to positive versus negative affective experiences and in the preferences for affect valence across age groups (results based on principal component analysis). Thus, affective experiences were found to be more strongly defined by positive affect among middle-aged and older adults. This shift in emotional goals towards positive affect among middle-aged and older adults is associated with distinctive mental representations of affect valence.