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Stability and Change in Affective Experience across the Adult Life-Span: Analyses with a National Sample from Germany

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  • Ute Kunzmann
  • David Richter
  • Stefan C. Schmukle

Abstract

Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a national sample spanning the adult lifespan, age differences in anger and sadness were explored. The cross-sectional and longitudinal findings consistently suggest that the frequency of anger increases during young adulthood, but then shows a steady decrease until old age. By contrast, the frequency of sadness remains stable over most of adulthood and begins to increase in old age. In addition, the effects of age on happiness were investigated; the cross-sectional evidence speaks for a steady decrease in happiness across age groups, but within-person decline in happiness was only evident in old age. Together the findings provide further evidence for multidirectional age differences in affective experience and suggest that the overall quality of affective experience may deteriorate in old age.

Suggested Citation

  • Ute Kunzmann & David Richter & Stefan C. Schmukle, 2013. "Stability and Change in Affective Experience across the Adult Life-Span: Analyses with a National Sample from Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 584, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp584
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ute Kunzmann, 2008. "Differential Age Trajectories of Positive and Negative Affect: Further Evidence From the Berlin Aging Study," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 63(5), pages 261-270.
    2. Fredda Blanchard-Fields & Andrew Mienaltowski & Renee Baldi Seay, 2007. "Age Differences in Everyday Problem-Solving Effectiveness: Older Adults Select More Effective Strategies for Interpersonal Problems," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 62(1), pages 61-64.
    3. Jule Specht & Boris Egloff & Stefan C. Schmukle, 2011. "Stability and Change of Personality across the Life Course: The Impact of Age and Major Life Events on Mean-Level and Rank-Order Stability of the Big Five," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 377, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Albert Satorra & Peter Bentler, 2001. "A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 66(4), pages 507-514, December.
    5. Kira S. Birditt & Karen L. Fingerman, 2005. "Do We Get Better at Picking Our Battles? Age Group Differences in Descriptions of Behavioral Reactions to Interpersonal Tensions," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 60(3), pages 121-128.
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    3. Matthias Lühr & Maria K. Pavlova & Maike Luhmann, 2022. "They are Doing Well, but is it by Doing Good? Pathways from Nonpolitical and Political Volunteering to Subjective Well-Being in Age Comparison," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 1969-1989, June.
    4. Dave Möwisch & Florian Schmiedek & David Richter & Annette Brose, 2019. "Capturing Affective Well-Being in Daily Life with the Day Reconstruction Method: A Refined View on Positive and Negative Affect," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 641-663, February.
    5. Richa Nigam & Bhoomika R. Kar, 2020. "Cognitive Ageing in Developing Societies: An Overview and a Cross-sectional Study on Young, Middle-aged and Older Adults in the Indian Context," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 32(2), pages 278-307, September.
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    7. Mujcic, Redzo & Oswald, Andrew J., 2018. "Is Envy Harmful to a Society’s Psychological Health and Wellbeing? A Longitudinal Study of 18,000 Adults," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 361, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
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