• Are young people more confrontational than seniors when faced with emotional conflicts?

  • How does a lifetime of experience inform our problem solving and decision-making in old age?

Questions like these reflect the heart of our research in this area: Understanding how everyday problem solving changes across the life span.

 

How does everyday problem solving differ across the adult lifespan?

We find that when adults solve problems low in emotional involvement (e.g., minor consumer problems), adults of all ages tend to use active strategies that are aimed at directly solving the problem. Age differences in problem solving strategies emerge, however, for interpersonal problems and for problems that reflect high emotional involvement. When faced with a highly emotional problem, young adults want to hastily fix the problem instead of considering the emotions involved. On the other hand, older adults want to use the context of the problem as a guide in deciding how to handle the situation. For example, when confronted with an intense emotional problem, such as a divorced man who wants custody of his child, young adults tend to suggest problem-focused strategies such as going to court. Conversely, older adults take the emotional nature of the situation into account, choosing instead to first consider the feelings of the child, e.g., suggesting that the father make the most of his visits with the child.

How does emotion regulation in everyday situations differ from adolescence through older adulthood?

Because adults of different ages deal with emotional problems in different ways, our research has proceeded to directly investigate older adults’ strategies for handling their emotions in comparison to younger age groups. By directly asking participants how they regulate their emotions while experiencing everyday problems we are able to get a better handle on the nature of these age differences. Young and middle-aged adults also report emotion-focused strategies when we directly ask them about emotion regulation. Their strategies typically involve proactively venting their emotions (e.g., angrily confront the ex-wife who has custody of the child). Older adults, on the other hand, use more passive emotion-focused strategies, such as accepting the problem as it is or hiding their feelings. These age differences are again most pronounced in highly emotional and interpersonal situations.
 
Why might younger individuals handle their emotions differently than older individuals in interpersonal problems? Our lab is investigating the mechanisms that account for these age differences. For example, older adults’ changing views about emotions play a role. Older adults may think about emotions in a more mature way as a result of their accumulated experience and continued development. They also may prioritize meaningful emotional exchanges if they perceive a limited amount of time left in life. Using passive strategies might be more effective for preserving important relationships. In addition, older adults are more likely to express sadness than anger. They might avoid expressing anger because they prioritize the maintenance of happy relationships. Expressing anger can hurt relationships, whereas expressing sadness can bring individuals closer together.

What other factors might contribute to age differences in everyday problem solving and emotion regulation?

Age differences in everyday problem solving could be related to several other underlying mechanisms in addition to the role of emotion. Factors such as problem solving self-efficacy, goals for solving the problem, and ways of thinking about the problem are some of the explanations we are investigating. For example, we find that adults who believe they are able to solve a problem (i.e., have high problem solving self-efficacy) choose active, deliberate strategies instead of passive ones. Age differences in self-efficacy beliefs could account for some of the age-related variance in strategy endorsement. An adult’s goal for solving the problem also could affect their strategies. Older adults tend to have goals focused on other people, and that could explain their everyday problem solving behavior. Finally, older adults often use styles of reasoning that are related to their experiences in life. We find that older adults use this experiential way of thinking more often than a strictly logical way of thinking, especially when they identify with the problem. Adopting an experiential mode of thought could influence how adults across the lifespan handle everyday problems and emotional conflicts.

References


Blanchard-Fields, F., Chen, Y., & Norris, L. (1997). Everyday problem solving across the adult life span: Influence of domain specificity and cognitive appraisal. Psychology and Aging, 12, 684-693.

Blanchard-Fields, F., Jahnke, H. C., & Camp, C. (1995). Age differences in problem solving style: The role of emotional salience. Psychology and Aging, 10, 173-180.

Blanchard-Fields, F., Stein, R., & Watson, T. L. (2004). Age differences in emotion regulation strategies in handling everyday problems. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 59B, 261-269.

Watson, T. L., & Blanchard-Fields, F. (1998). Thinking with your head and your heart: Age differences in everyday problem-solving strategy preferences. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 5, 225-240.