Emily Schryer

Contrary to Psychological and Popular Opinion, There Is No Compelling Evidence That Older Adults Are Disproportionately Victimized by Consumer Fraud

According to psychological and popular opinion, older persons are especially susceptible to consumer fraud. Research on cognitive and affective aging reveals age-related changes that could increase the vulnerability of older persons to consumer fraud. However, this research does not show that consumer fraud actually is more prevalent among older persons. In generalizing from laboratory findings of cognitive decline to age differences in the prevalence of consumer fraud, psychologists may underestimate the influence in everyday life of possible protective factors associated with old age, including increased experience and changes in goals, lifestyle, income, as well as purchasing and risk behaviors. We review evidence on the prevalence of consumer fraud and conclude that there is no clear indication that it is more prevalent among older persons. Aggregating across all consumer frauds, there is evidence that consumer fraud is less common among older persons than adults of other ages. This evidence is potentially flawed, however, because of failings inherent in the methodologies. In the absence of irrefutable data, it is premature to conclude that consumer fraud is less prevalent among older adults, but it is also premature to conclude that consumer fraud is more prevalent among older persons, as is assumed in conventional and psychological wisdom.

Does the Age-Related Positivity Effect in Autobiographical Recall Reflect Differences in Appraisal or Memory?

OBJECTIVES Two studies examined the extent to which the age-related positivity effect in autobiographical recall is the result of age differences in appraisal and memory. METHODS In Study 1, older and younger participants reported 1 pleasant and 1 unpleasant event for 5 days. Participants attempted to recall those events a week later. In Study 2, older and younger participants imagined that positive, negative, and neutral hypothetical events had occurred either to themselves or to an acquaintance and were later asked to recall those events. RESULTS In Study 1, younger adults reported a complete set of positive and negative events. Older adults reported a pleasant event each day, but 38% did not report an unpleasant event on at least 1 day. A week later, older and younger adults were equally likely to recall the events they had reported. In Study 2, older adults who imagined events happened to themselves rated events as more positive in valence than younger adults did. Older and younger adults were equally likely to remember pleasant and unpleasant events at the end of the study. DISCUSSION The data suggest that the age-related positivity effect resides in the appraisal rather than the recall of autobiographical events.

Emotional expressivity in older and younger adults' descriptions of personal memories

Background/Study Context: According to the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Mather & Carstensen, 2003, Psychological Sciences, 14, 409–415), aging is associated with greater motivation to regulate emotions. The authors propose that the language people use to describe personal memories provides an index of age differences in emotional self-regulation. Methods: In the present article, the authors reanalyzed three previously published studies in which older (aged 60–88) and younger (aged 17–33) participants described emotional and neutral memories from their recent and distant pasts. The authors analyzed the language of the memories using Pennebaker, Booth, and Franciss (2007) Linguistic Inquiry Word Count program (Austin, TX: LIWC Inc.), which calculates the percentage of positive and negative emotion words. Results: In Studies 1 and 2, older adults used more positive emotion words than did younger adults to describe their autobiographical memories from the recent past, particularly when these were of a neutral valence. In Study 3, older adults used more positive emotion words when describing more recent memories (from the past 5 years) but not when describing distant childhood or adolescent memories. Conclusion: The authors suggest that these age differences in emotional expressivity support SST, and represent an as-yet unreported age difference that may stem from differences in motivation to regulate emotion.

Understanding the association between time spent caregiving and well-being among employed adults: testing a model of work-life fit and sense of community

ABSTRACT This study examines factors associated with work–life fit and sense of geographic community as mediators of the negative association between caregiving demands and well-being among employed informal caregivers. Data were drawn from a larger project assessing well-being among residents of three mid-size cities in Ontario, Canada. A subsample was selected of informal caregivers who worked for pay for at least eight hours/week (n = 276). Caregiving demands were measured by time spent caring for an adult who was a relative, friend, or neighbour. Well-being followed a holistic conceptualization advanced by the Canadian Index of Wellbeing. The more time spent caregiving, the lower participants’ well-being ratings were. This association was mediated by perceived time adequacy, income adequacy, and sense of community, such that the more time participants spent caregiving, the lower their ratings of these three resources. This explained the initial association of caregiving hours with reduced well-being. Enhanced well-being was more strongly associated with sense of community than any other factor, which supports the importance of the community domain in understanding well-being among employed caregivers and suggests its further testing with other population groups. Policy implications for employers and community organizations are provided.

The Effects of Subjective Age and Aging Attitudes on Mid- to Late-Life Sexuality

This study examined the effects of subjective age and attitudes about aging on frequency of sex and interest in sexual activity among middle-aged and older adults. Data were drawn from two waves of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study (n = 1,170 adults, mean age Time 1 = 53.70 years, SD = 9.08). Regression analyses were used to investigate the effects of subjective age and attitudes about aging on three measures of sexuality: frequency of sex, perceived quality of sexual activity, and interest in sexual activity, over 10 years. The older participants felt and the less positive their views of aging, the less they rated sexual activity as enjoyable over time. Feeling older (though not attitudes about aging) also predicted less interest in sex. Subjective age and beliefs about aging did not have an impact on frequency of sex. Although frequency of sex was not predicted by subjective aging and aging attitudes, the results suggested that subjective age and stereotypic views on aging may shape the experience of sex in later life.

The Social Context of Driving Cessation: Understanding the Effects of Cessation on the Life Satisfaction of Older Drivers and Their Social Partners:

Older adults with vision loss and a friend or family member were interviewed over a 2-year period. We examined the effects of driving cessation on life satisfaction among older adults and a social contact. Drivers’ use of public transportation was examined as a moderator. Driving cessation was associated with a decline in life satisfaction among social partners but not for the drivers. Drivers’ use of public transportation at baseline moderated the effects of cessation on changes in well-being among social partners, but had little effect on the life satisfaction of the drivers. Life satisfaction was greater among the social partners of ex-drivers who used public transportation more frequently. The association between driving cessation and well-being should be studied in the context of older drivers’ social networks. Infrastructure (e.g., subways and buses) that supports transportation needs plays an important role in mitigating the effects of cessation on older adults’ social networks.

How your executive functioning impacts me: Findings from a normative sample of older couples.

Although executive functioning (EF) has implications for ones emotional functioning and interpersonal behavior, and EF skills become more variable as we age, little research has investigated whether normative age-related changes in EF impact social-emotional outcomes in close others. The current study used a dyadic approach to examine the impact of individual differences in core aspects of EF on indices of well-being in 91 married or cohabiting couples aged 55 years and older. Participants in each dyad completed EF tasks of inhibition, working memory, and task switching, control tasks of language and short-term memory (STM) in which EF demands were comparatively minimal, and self-report measures of depression and quality of life. Dyadic analyses showed that individuals with lower levels of EF self-reported more depressive symptoms, though there was no significant association between an individuals EF and their partners self-reported mood. Conversely, individuals with lower levels of EF had partners who endorsed a lower quality of life, though there was no significant association between an individuals EF and their own quality of life ratings. Control tasks did not predict either aspect of well-being in either member of the dyad. Taken together, these findings highlight EF-and not simply cognition in general-as a potential determinant of well-being in oneself and ones partner among aging couples.