Age-related differences in affective and cognitive empathy: self-report and performance-based evidence

The correlation between age and empathy is not clear, with prior findings yielding mixed and inconsistent results. Here, we distinguished between two aspects of empathy and respectively investigated the effects of age on the affective and cognitive facets of empathy using a self-report measure (interpersonal reactivity index, IRI) and performance-based tasks (viewing films). The results showed that older adults manifested age-related deficits in both trait and state cognitive empathy, with the latter being positively associated with memory. Otherwise, the overall affective empathy increased in the elderly, but the age-related differences in affective empathy may be qualified by the valence of the film clips. Specifically, older participants showed more empathic concern (EC) and less personal distress (PD) to other people’s emotions than the younger participants for the distress film. Interestingly, for the amusing film, older participants demonstrated more EC and PD. Overall, the two aspects of empathy have different development trajectories.     

Age differences in dynamical emotion-cognition linkages

The ability to maintain the separation between positive emotion and negative emotion in times of stress has been construed as a resilience mechanism. Emotional resiliency is particularly relevant in old age given concomitant declines in cognitive performance. In the present study, the authors examined the dynamical linkages among positive emotion, negative emotion, and cognition as individuals performed a complex cognitive task. Comparisons were made between younger (n = 63) and older (n = 52) age groups. Older adults manifested significant unidirectional coupling from negative emotion to cognitive performance; younger adults manifested significant unidirectional coupling from negative emotion to positive emotion and from cognitive performance to both positive and negative emotions. Implications for age differences in emotion regulatory strategies are discussed.     

Personality Dysfunction, Coping Styles, and Clinical Symptoms in Younger and Older Adults

This study examined age-related differences in personality disorders, dispositional coping strategies, and clinical symptoms between younger (n = 79; age range = 18–29; M age = 21.2 years) and older (n = 79; age range = 55–89; M age = 65.5 years) persons (matched on gender and ethnicity). Participants completed the Coolidge Axis II Inventory (CATI), Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced Scale (COPE), and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Personality results (t tests) based on the CATI revealed that older persons were significantly more obsessive–compulsive and schizoid than younger adults but significantly lower on 7 scales, including antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and sadistic. As assessed by the COPE, older adults reported lower levels of dysfunctional coping strategies than younger adults. Specifically, older persons were less likely to use mental disengagement, venting of emotions, and alcohol/drugs to cope with problems. BSI results for clinical symptoms revealed that younger adults were significantly higher on 5 of 9 scales, including anxiety, depression, and hostility. Results suggest that younger adults experience higher levels of personality and clinical symptoms and use more dysfunctional coping strategies than older adults, dispelling the myth that old age is associated with inevitable psychological impairment. Theoretical considerations, clinical implications, and future research ideas are discussed.     

Comparison of Cognitive Empathy,Emotional Empathy,and Social Functioning in Different Age Groups

Empathic responses and optimum social functioning are associated with psychological and physical health benefits. The aim of this study was to compare emotional empathy, cognitive empathy, and social functioning among different age groups, including adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. One hundred and ninety‐six people (92 males, 104 females) with the age range of 14 to 85 assigned to four age groups (adolescents, young adults, middle adults, and older adults) participated in this study. Participants were asked to complete the Empathy Quotient, the Revised Eyes Test, and Social Functioning Scale. The results showed that there were significant differences between older adults and other groups. Emotional empathy increased in older people, but there were deficits in some aspects of cognitive empathy. Also, the findings showed an age‐related decline in social functioning. Due to deficits in cognitive empathy affected by ageing, older adults showed some impairment in their ability to interpret emotional cues. This age‐related decline in cognitive empathy might be a reason for weak social functioning in older adults. Therefore, considering these elements would be helpful to provide healthcare strategies for elderly people.     

Empathie und Persönlichkeitsstörungen aus neurobiologischer Sicht

In contrast to the vague application of the term empathy in general usage, the neurobiological literature differentiates between cognitive empathy and emotional empathy. The former includes cognitive recognition of the mental state of someone else due to reflexive acquisition of perspectives and theory of mind functions, the latter includes the reflexive intuitive sympathy and sharing the emotions of others. Both independent from each other and interindividual differently expressed facets can be assigned to different brain networks which process these events. Early evolutionary processes of emotional empathy are already developed in infants by mirror image imitation of mimicry and gestures of the primary contact person. They involve premotor regions, areas of the sensomotor cortex, the inferior parietal lobule and the anterior insular regions. Phylogenetically younger processes of cognitive empathy are represented in particular in midline structures, such as the medial prefrontal cortex, superior temporal sulcus, posterior cingulum or precuneus as well as in the temporoparietal junction. They have their beginning in shared attention processes in early dyadic processes. Both facets of empathy are involved in moral decision-making processes. In this context, neurobiological studies show that psychopaths have undisturbed cognitive empathic capabilities and are principally able to recognize and apply moral values but confer little attentional importance to them when they compete with own targets. Individuals with borderline personality disorders in contrast to psychopaths show impairments in cognitive empathy. The deficits affect mentalization functions, which involve the understanding of the mental state of others and oneself and are also the starting point for many misunderstandings in an interpersonal context. Additionally, individuals with borderline personality disorder have a tendency to share emotions with other people. They therefore succeed in showing sympathy and compassion although associated with the danger of diffusion of self and third party borders.     

Fostering the development of compassion in young children

Conclusion Compassion involves the feeling of emotions which are more appropriate to another's situation than to one's own situation (empathy), along with elements of condolence, pity, and/or agreement (sympathy) resulting in action taken to help or support another (pro-social behavior). The precise relationship among these components of empathy, sympathy, and pro-social behavior remains ambiguous, although their inter-relatedness seems clear. Martin L. Hoffman's theory of the development of empathy in six modes and other empirical research give assurance that the rudiments of empathy, sympathy, and pro-social behavior exist in very young children; this literature informs the practical efforts of parents and educators toward nurturing compassion. Practical strategies thus deemed effective include fostering the emotional bonds between infants and their care-givers, the inducement and rehearsal of pro-social behaviors in day care, preschool, and primary school programs, the use of inductive discipline, the use of appropriate narrative and viewing, and giving attention to the small child's overall environment.     

时间知觉在老年人跨期选择中的作用

随着人口老龄化速度的加快,老年人的跨期选择问题受到越来越多的关注。时间知觉是影响跨期选择的重要因素之一。然而,目前从时间知觉的角度来探讨老年人跨期选择的研究比较有限。本文在总结国内外相关研究的基础之上,试图分析时间知觉的随龄变化如何影响老年人的跨期选择。具体而言,本文从时间长度知觉、时间成本知觉以及时间知觉相关心理动机三个方面进行探讨,并指出了时间知觉视角的局限性及今后的研究方向。     

The Portuguese version of the Basic Empathy Scale (BES): Dimensionality and measurement invariance in a community adolescent sample

Empathy is the heightened ability to cognitively perceive and/or affectively share the emotions of others, which has been consistently associated with desirable social interactions. This paper aimed to test the bi-factorial structure of a Portuguese version of the Basic Empathy Scale and examine its variation by gender and age using a large community sample (n = 1029) of adolescents. The two-factor model, originally developed and supported by other cross-cultural validations, presented good fit indicators which was similar across genders and adolescent age groups. Girls were more empathic than boys and younger adolescents were more empathic than the older ones. Further support for the validity of the new scale comes from its relations to measures of social skills and aggression which were similar to theoretical predictions. In conclusion, the Portuguese version of the BES is a consistent and valid instrument for the assessment of empathy in samples of adolescents aged 12–18 years old in Portugal, which can now be used in cross-cultural studies of this important psychological construct.     

Effects of age on cross-modal emotion perception

Efficient navigation of our social world depends on the generation, interpretation, and combination of social signals within different sensory systems. However, the influence of healthy adult aging on multisensory integration of emotional stimuli remains poorly explored. This article comprises 2 studies that directly address issues of age differences on cross-modal emotional matching and explicit identification. The first study compared 25 younger adults (19-40 years) and 25 older adults (60-80 years) on their ability to match cross-modal congruent and incongruent emotional stimuli. The second study looked at performance of 20 younger (19-40) and 20 older adults (60-80) on explicit emotion identification when information was presented congruently in faces and voices or only in faces or in voices. In Study 1, older adults performed as well as younger adults on tasks in which congruent auditory and visual emotional information were presented concurrently, but there were age-related differences in matching incongruent cross-modal information. Results from Study 2 indicated that though older adults were impaired at identifying emotions from 1 modality (faces or voices alone), they benefited from congruent multisensory information as age differences were eliminated. The findings are discussed in relation to social, emotional, and cognitive changes with age.     

Correlations of trait and state emotions with utilitarian moral judgements

In four experiments, we asked subjects for judgements about scenarios that pit utilitarian outcomes against deontological moral rules, for example, saving more lives vs. a rule against active killing. We measured trait emotions of anger, disgust, sympathy and empathy (the last two in both specific and general forms, the latter referring to large groups of people), asked about the same emotions after each scenario (state emotions). We found that utilitarian responding to the scenarios, and higher scores on a utilitarianism scale, were correlated negatively with disgust, positively (but weakly and inconsistently) with anger, positively with specific sympathy and state sympathy, and less so with general sympathy or empathy. In a fifth experiment, we asked about anger and sympathy for specific outcomes, and we found that these are consistently predictive of utilitarian responding.     

Empathic Skills and Cyberbullying: Relationship of Different Measures of Empathy to Cyberbullying in Comparison to Offline Bullying Among Young Adults

ABSTRACT

Empathy, as the ability to understand and feel the emotions of others, is related to less bullying behavior. However, the link of bullying behavior with self-reports of empathy seems to be stronger than with behavioral measures of empathy (e.g., empathic accuracy). Few studies have analyzed the relationship of affective and cognitive empathy to cyberbullying behavior, especially among young adults. In a quasiexperimental dyadic interaction paradigm with 72 young adults, empathic accuracy was operationalized as the match of other- and self-reported emotions for the target, and emotional congruence as the match of the target's and the perceiver's self-reported emotions. Affective and cognitive empathy, offline bullying behavior, and cyberbullying behavior were measured using self-reports. Empathic accuracy and cognitive empathy were found to be negatively linked. Emotional congruence, self-reported affective and cognitive empathy did not correlate with offline bullying behavior or cyberbullying behavior. Only empathic accuracy was significantly negatively linked to offline bullying behavior. In group tests, higher empathic accuracy (but not emotional congruence) was connected to less offline bullying behavior. In a multiple regression analysis only emotional congruence was a predictor of cyberbullying behavior. Thus, while empathic accuracy might diminish offline bullying behavior, emotional congruence might diminish cyberbullying behavior.     

Unpleasant situations elicit different emotional responses in younger and older adults

Older adults report less distress in response to interpersonal conflicts than do younger adults, yet few researchers have examined factors that may contribute to these age differences. Emotion regulation is partially determined by the initial cognitive and emotional reactions that events elicit. The authors examined reported thoughts and emotions of younger and older adults (N = 195) while they listened to 3 different audiotaped conversations in which people were ostensibly making disparaging remarks about them. At 4 points during each scenario, the tape paused and participants engaged in a talk-aloud procedure and rated their level of anger and sadness. Findings reveal that older adults reported less anger but equal levels of sadness compared to younger adults, and their comments were judged by coders as less negative. Older adults made fewer appraisals about the people speaking on the tape and expressed less interest in learning more about their motives. Together, findings are consistent with age-related increases in processes that promote disengagement from offending situations.     

Subtle sex bias in empathy and helping behavior

The present study examined the influences on empathy and altruism of sex of participant, the affective demeanor (positive or negative) and cognitive processes (positive or negative) displayed by a female target in a video, and the perspective-taking focus of participants. The latter variable is related to the affective or cognitive response to the target's portrayal, or the response to technical aspects of the video (nonperspective-taking). Empathy was measured using Batson's Empathy Adjectives (1987) and altruism was measured by participants' written responses, which indicated how many hours they were willing to volunteer to help persons similar to the target. An ethnically diverse sample of working adults (M age = 31.6 yr., SD = 8.2) participated. Analysis yielded a subtle difference between groups. Men reported feeling more empathy for a confused, unfocused, illogical woman target, whereas women felt more empathy for a focused, clear, logical woman target. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between sex and helping--men offered more help than women.     

The development of children’s sympathy,moral emotion attributions,and moral reasoning in two cultures

The current study investigated the development of children’s sympathy, moral emotion attributions, and moral reasoning in two cultures: Chile and Switzerland. One hundred seventy-six children in two age groups (i.e., 6 and 9 years old) were asked to report their sympathy. Moral emotion attributions and moral reasoning were measured using two hypothetical moral transgressions (i.e., omitting a prosocial duty, stealing from another child). Younger Chilean children reported higher levels of sympathy than younger Swiss children. Across cultures, older children attributed more moral emotions than did younger children. Younger Swiss children used more moral reasoning following judgements about rule violations than did younger Chilean children. The findings are discussed from both a developmental and cross-cultural perspective.     

Changes in Empathy Mediate the Effects of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy but Not Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has been shown to be associated with difficulty in the ability to vicariously share others’ positive emotions (positive affective empathy). Mixed evidence also suggests potentially impaired recognition of the positive and negative emotions of others (cognitive empathy) and impaired or enhanced sharing of the negative emotions of others (negative affective empathy). Therefore, we examined whether two efficacious treatments for SAD, cognitive-behavioral group therapy (CBGT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), improve empathy in SAD relative to a wait-list condition and whether improvements in empathy mediate improvements in social anxiety. In the context of a randomized controlled trial, participants with SAD completed an empathy task at baseline, posttreatment/wait-list (N = 81), and 1-year follow-up (N = 37). Relative to both MBSR and wait-list, CBGT resulted in significant improvements in positive affective empathy. CBGT-related changes in positive affective empathy also mediated improvements in social anxiety at both posttreatment/wait-list and at 1-year follow-up. Other indices of empathy did not change differentially across the three conditions. Therefore, one way in which CBGT may specifically confer benefits to individuals with SAD is through increasing their ability or willingness to share in the positive emotions of others.     

Self-perception of driving abilities in older age: A systematic review

Older adults have become the fastest growing age group worldwide and will continue to make up a more significant portion of the driving population. Given the increased potential for age-related perceptual, cognitive, and physical declines, it is important to understand the perception that older drivers have regarding their own driving abilities. This awareness often motivates their driving behavior and patterns.A systematic review was conducted to synthesize the literature regarding the self-perception of driving abilities in older age. The PRISMA method was used and 10 databases (SCOPUS, TRID, PsycINFO, AgeLine, Web of Science, Abstracts in Social Gerontology, Inspec, Compendex, PubMed, and Medline) were searched to identify relevant articles. A total of 25 articles met the search criteria and were included in the qualitative synthesis.Overall, methods used to assess self-perception of driving abilities in older adults vary considerably. Some studies employ only subjective questionnaires, while others administer questionnaires in addition to on-road driving or simulated evaluations. Nonetheless, the studies overwhelmingly report that older drivers tend to rate highly, and often overestimate, their driving abilities. They perceive their driving abilities to be better than themselves at a younger age, their cohorts, and all other drivers. However, more work is needed to develop improved subjective assessments that guide drivers in more accurately estimating their true driving abilities, as well as to compare subjective ratings to objective performance-based measures of driving abilities.This review may assist researchers in better understanding the characteristics that influence driving self-perception and may inform the development of interventional strategies that help older drivers to better calibrate how they perceive their driving.     

Age differences in vocal emotion perception: on the role of speaker age and listener sex

Older adults have greater difficulty than younger adults perceiving vocal emotions. To better characterise this effect, we explored its relation to age differences in sensory, cognitive and emotional functioning. Additionally, we examined the role of speaker age and listener sex. Participants (N?=?163) aged 19–34 years and 60–85 years categorised neutral sentences spoken by ten younger and ten older speakers with a happy, neutral, sad, or angry voice. Acoustic analyses indicated that expressions from younger and older speakers denoted the intended emotion with similar accuracy. As expected, younger participants outperformed older participants and this effect was statistically mediated by an age-related decline in both optimism and working-memory. Additionally, age differences in emotion perception were larger for younger as compared to older speakers and a better perception of younger as compared to older speakers was greater in younger as compared to older participants. Last, a female perception benefit was less pervasive in the older than the younger group. Together, these findings suggest that the role of age for emotion perception is multi-faceted. It is linked to emotional and cognitive change, to processing biases that benefit young and own-age expressions, and to the different aptitudes of women and men.     

Aging and motivated cognition: the positivity effect in attention and memory

As people get older, they experience fewer negative emotions. Strategic processes in older adults' emotional attention and memory might play a role in this variation with age. Older adults show more emotionally gratifying memory distortion for past choices and autobiographical information than younger adults do. In addition, when shown stimuli that vary in affective valence, positive items account for a larger proportion of older adults' subsequent memories than those of younger adults. This positivity effect in older adults' memories seems to be due to their greater focus on emotion regulation and to be implemented by cognitive control mechanisms that enhance positive and diminish negative information. These findings suggest that both cognitive abilities and motivation contribute to older adults' improved emotion regulation.     

老年人日常人际问题解决中的悲伤情绪体验和情绪调节策略: 年龄和人格特质的作用

考察了日常人际问题解决中老年人的悲伤情绪体验和情绪调节策略与青年人的差异,以及年龄和人格特质的作用。共45名老年人和59名青年人接受半结构化访谈和人格特质测量。结果表明：（1）以教育水平为协变量的方差分析表明,老年人和青年人的悲伤情绪体验没有显著差异。老年人的被动情绪调节策略的使用和青年人存在显著差异;（2）老年人的被动情绪调节策略不但与年龄有关,而且与悲伤情绪体验有关。悲伤情绪体验可以显著预测其被动情绪调节策略使用;（3）老年人的悲伤情绪体验与人格特质神经质维度存在显著正相关;（4）老年人与年轻人的被动情绪调节策略都与悲伤情绪有关,但老年人的被动情绪调节策略不能由人格特质显著预测,而青年人的被动调节策略还可以由人格特质内外向维度显著预测。人格特质的内外向维度对老年人和青年人的前摄性情绪调节策略的预测效应是一致的。最后针对老年人的悲伤情绪体验和情绪调节策略的意义进行了讨论。     

Autobiographical memory specificity predicts social problem-solving ability in old and young adults

Based on recent research with young, depressed adults, age-related cognitive declines and decreased autobiographical specificity were hypothesized to predict poorer social problem-solving ability in older than in younger healthy adults. Priming autobiographical memory (ABM) was hypothesized to improve social problem-solving performance for older adults. Subsequent to cognitive tests, old and young participants' specific ABMs were tested using a cued recall task, followed by a social problem-solving task. The order of the tasks was counterbalanced to test for a priming effect. Autobiographical specificity was related to cognitive ability and predicted social problem-solving ability for both age groups. However, priming of ABM did not improve social problem-solving ability for older or younger adults. This study provides support for the hypothesis that autobiographical memory serves a directive function across the life-span.