Michaela Riediger

FACES - A database of facial expressions in young, middle-aged, and older women and men : Development and validation

Faces are widely used as stimuli in various research fields. Interest in emotion-related differences and age-associated changes in the processing of faces is growing. With the aim of systematically varying both expression and age of the face, we created FACES, a database comprising N=171 naturalistic faces of young, middle-aged, and older women and men. Each face is represented with two sets of six facial expressions (neutrality, sadness, disgust, fear, anger, and happiness), resulting in 2,052 individual images. A total of N=154 young, middleaged, and older women and men rated the faces in terms of facial expression and perceived age. With its large age range of faces displaying different expressions, FACES is well suited for investigating developmental and other research questions on emotion, motivation, and cognition, as well as their interactions. Information on using FACES for research purposes can be found at http://faces.mpib-berlin.mpg.de.

Interference and Facilitation among Personal Goals: Differential Associations with Subjective Well-Being and Persistent Goal Pursuit

Three studies demonstrate that mutual facilitation and interference among personal goals are distinct characteristics rather than mutually exclusive opposites and have different functions for psychological well-being and goal pursuit. The three studies vary in design (cross-sectional, short-termlongitudinal) and follow a multimethod approach using questionnaires, diaries, and objective behavioral information. Results show that interference among goals (resulting from resource constraints and incompatible goal attainment strategies) is negatively associated with trait and state well-being, whereas mutual facilitation among goals (resulting from instrumental goal relations and overlapping goal attainment strategies) is positively associated with involvement in goal pursuit.

Selection, optimization, and compensation as developmental mechanisms of adaptive resource allocation : review and preview

Publisher Summary The conceptual framework of selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) is a valuable meta-theoretical tool for integrating research on life span development across functional domains, life periods, and levels of analysis. Its explicit focus on selection, optimization, and compensation as a three key mechanism of developmental resource generation and allocation effectively counteracts the fragmentation of knowledge that characterizes much of the work in child development and aging. This chapter reviews empirical findings on adaptive resource allocation in adulthood and old age, primarily from a SOC perspective. Special emphasis is given to two research domains: motivation–volition, and cognitive–sensorimotor functioning. The development, expression, and function of diverse developmental phenomena such as goal selection, pursuit, and performance in cognitive–sensorimotor dual tasks can be regarded as specific implementations of the component processes of selection, optimization, or compensation. New research directions within the SOC framework are also delineated.

Let Me Guess How Old You Are: Effects of Age, Gender, and Facial Expression on Perceptions of Age

Perceptions of age influence how we evaluate, approach, and interact with other people. Based on a paramorphic human judgment model, the present study investigates possible determinants of accuracy and bias in age estimation across the adult life span. For this purpose, 154 young, middle-aged, and older participants of both genders estimated the age of 171 faces of young, middle-aged, and older men and women, portrayed on a total of 2,052 photographs. Each face displayed either an angry, fearful, disgusted, happy, sad, or neutral expression (FACES database; Ebner, Riediger, & Lindenberger, 2010). We found that age estimation ability decreased with age. Older and young adults, however, were more accurate and less biased in estimating the age of members of their own as compared with those of the other age group. In contrast, no reliable own-gender advantage was observed. Generally, the age of older faces was more difficult to estimate than the age of younger faces. Furthermore, facial expressions had a substantial impact on accuracy and bias of age estimation. Relative to other facial expressions, the age of neutral faces was estimated most accurately, while the age of faces displaying happy expressions was most likely underestimated. Results are discussed in terms of methodological and practical implications for research on age estimation.

Focusing and Restricting: Two Aspects of Motivational Selectivity in Adulthood

Using a short-term longitudinal design, the authors investigated implications of 2 facets of motivational selectivity--restricting (to few goals) and focusing (on central and similar goals)--for goal-pursuit investment. Participants were 20-69 years old (Time 1, N = 177; Time 2, N = 160). Results show that motivational selectivity in terms of focusing (but not in terms of restricting) is associated with an enhanced involvement in goal pursuit (assessed 3 months later), irrespective of age. Structural equation models demonstrated that this association is completely mediated by the degree of mutual facilitation among goals. Furthermore, motivational selectivity increases from middle to older adulthood. This contributes to the maintenance of high goal involvement into later adulthood, despite aging-related increases in resource limitations.

Me Against Myself: Motivational Conflicts and Emotional Development in Adulthood

Two studies investigated adult age differences in the frequency and emotional consequences of motivational conflicts (i.e., feeling that one wants to or should do something else in a given situation). Study 1 compared younger and older adults. Study 2 included a more age-heterogeneous sample ranging from 20 to 70 years. Data were obtained using diary and experience-sampling methods. Multilevel regression showed that motivational conflict was associated with lower emotional well-being. With age, the frequency of motivational conflict decreased, while emotional well-being increased. Importantly, the age-related decrease in motivational conflicts partly accounted for the age-related increase in emotional well-being. Findings were consistent across studies and robust after the authors controlled for age differences in a number of control variables including time use. The authors conclude that an age-related decrease in motivational conflicts in daily life may be among the factors underlying the positive development of emotional well-being into older adulthood.

Age-related differences in outcome and process goal focus

Three studies report initial findings on age-related differences in goal focus. Study 1 compared younger (n = 23, 19–25 years) to older (n = 20, 57–78 years) adults regarding their preference for representations of goals in terms of the means (process focus) or the associated outcomes (outcome focus). As expected, older adults chose process descriptors of goals more frequently than younger adults. Study 2 investigated the emotional consequences of goal focus. Whereas younger adults (n = 49, 18–25 years) reported higher negative affect when they focused on the outcomes of a goal, older adults (n = 40, 60–88 years) reported higher positive affect when they focused on the process. Study 3, a 4-month longitudinal study, applied the distinction between process and outcome focus to the context of a personal goal in everyday life (starting to exercise). Older adults (n = 46, 55–78 years) reported having a stronger process focus than younger adults (n = 55, 19–25 years). Again, older adults were more likely to adopt a process than an outcome focus. For both age groups, process focus predicted positive goal-related development and affective well-being. In contrast, outcome focus was either not or negatively related to these outcomes.

Beyond “happy, angry, or sad?”: Age-of-poser and age-of-rater effects on multi-dimensional emotion perception

Young, middle-aged, and older raters (N=154) evaluated 1,026 prototypical facial poses of neutrality, happiness, anger, disgust, fear, and sadness stemming from 171 young, middle-aged, and older posers. The majority of poses were rated as multi-faceted, that is, to comprise several expressions of varying intensities. Consistent with the notion of age-related increases in negativity–avoidance/positivity effects, crossed-random effects analyses showed an age-related decrease in the attributions of negative, but not positive and neutral, target expressions (that the poser intended to show), and an age-related increase in the attributions of positive and neutral, but not negative, non-target expressions (that the posers did not intend to show). Expressions were more difficult to read the older the posers, particularly for male posers. These age-of-poser effects were independent of the valence of the expression, but partly differed across age groups of raters. The study supports the idea of multi-dimensionality and age-dependency of emotion perception.

Ambulatory Assessment in Lifespan Psychology : An Overview of Current Status and New Trends

Ambulatory assessment represents a powerful research tool in lifespan psychology because it allows assessing the within-per- son variability of developmental processes as it occurs within context-specific influences of peoples natural environments. Following a discussion of historical origins, we review four current research themes in developmentally relevant ambulatory assessment studies that use electronic devices as assessment instruments: (a) affective-motivational development, (b) social contexts of development, (c) age-re- lated challenges and everyday functioning, and (d) cognitive development. Overall, the reviewed research demonstrates that ambulatory assessment complements traditional developmental study designs and laboratory assessments in important ways. Acknowledging the strengths and limitations of ambulatory assessment approaches, we propose that ambulatory assessment will benefit lifespan psychology most if it becomes an integral part of multimethod investigations of developmental phenomena that balance the external and internal validity of findings. Future research should strengthen the lifespan perspective in ambulatory assessment approaches, combine multiple indicators (subjective and objective) of successful development, and attend to the fact that individual development often interacts with significant others.

Desired emotions across cultures: A value-based account

Values reflect how people want to experience the world; emotions reflect how people actually experience the world. Therefore, we propose that across cultures people desire emotions that are consistent with their values. Whereas prior research focused on the desirability of specific affective states or 1 or 2 target emotions, we offer a broader account of desired emotions. After reporting initial evidence for the potential causal effects of values on desired emotions in a preliminary study (N = 200), we tested the predictions of our proposed model in 8 samples (N = 2,328) from distinct world cultural regions. Across cultural samples, we found that people who endorsed values of self-transcendence (e.g., benevolence) wanted to feel more empathy and compassion, people who endorsed values of self-enhancement (e.g., power) wanted to feel more anger and pride, people who endorsed values of openness to change (e.g., self-direction) wanted to feel more interest and excitement, and people who endorsed values of conservation (e.g., tradition) wanted to feel more calmness and less fear. These patterns were independent of differences in emotional experience. We discuss the implications of our value-based account of desired emotions for understanding emotion regulation, culture, and other individual differences. (PsycINFO Database Record