Centre for Policy on Ageing



Age and the understanding of emotions — neuropsychological and sociocognitive perspectives
Author(s)	Louise H Phillips, Rory D J MacLean, Roy Allen
Journal title	Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 57B, no 6, November 2002
Pages	pp P526-P530
Keywords	Emotions ; Attitude ; Adults ; Age groups [elderly] ; Comparison ; Scotland.
Annotation	Sociocognitive approaches suggest that the ability to understand emotions should be well maintained in ageing. However, neuropsychological evidence suggests potential impairments in processing emotions in older people. In this study, 30 young adults (aged 20-40) and 30 older adults (aged 60-80) were tested on a range of emotional ability measures. There were no age differences in the ability to decode conditions from verbal material. Older people were less able to identify facial expressions of anger and sadness, and showed poorer ability to identify theory of mind from pictures of eyes. Results indicate specific age-related deficits in identifying some aspects of emotion from faces, but no age effects in the understanding of emotions in verbal descriptions. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-021216262 A
Classmark	DL: DP: SD: BB: 48: 9A
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.