Issue 1 Vol. 40 1998

Emotional reactivity in the elderly: Some basic problems and results

HÜPPE, M., JANKE, W.:Emotional reactivity in the elderly

Emotional reactivity is the individual responsiveness to external or internal stimuli which produce emotional reactions. Emotional reactivity is important to understand adaptivity to environmental demands. In spite of this meaning gerontopsychological research in emotional reactivity is neglected. Most studies concerning emotionality in the elderly refer to mood under nonspecific conditions ("Measurements of Non-Reactivity"). The methodological approach for the measurement of emotional reactivity is the specification of emotionally evoking conditions and the assessment of defined reactions under these conditions ("Measurements of Reactivity"). To characterize emotional reactivity different kinds of emotional indicators are used (subjective mood ratings, autonomic indicators, variables of expression). Only by using this methodological approach important basic questions concerning emotional reactivity may be answered. This article discusses these questions and gives an overview to the state of research. Based on experiments of our research group useful methods to evoke emotions are reported and sensitivity and validity of indicators of emotions in the elderly are discussed.

Keywords: age, emotion, reactivity

Short Title: HÜppe, M. (1998) PsyBeit 1:113

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