Does emotionality change over the life span?

Later life is a long and varied stage of the life cycle. Older people may face many different emotional and physical experiences and may have vastly different psychological, social and physical resources available for coping. The interactions between a person's physical, social and psychological resources is complex. However, in contrast to physical and social resources, a person’s psychological coping/resources may be more implicit and difficult to identify.

There has been debate about whether aspects of psychological coping/functioning change across the lifespan. However, Coleman (1996) notes that there is a growing consensus that personality traits tend to be stable with age but that key aspects of self such as goals, values, coping styles and control beliefs are more amenable to change. In addition to the above, approaches to considering emotional functioning in later life vary in the degree to how much an older person is seen as primarily a passive recipient of changes with age (e.g. being at increased risk from physical health decline and bereavements) or more of an active agent in seeking ways to maintain and/or developing their emotional well-being.

The topic of emotional functioning in older people is a vast and until more recently there have been very few empirical studies to help to throw more light onto this important area. The number of studies is still limited but this brief review article aims to initially outline some key approaches and perspectives relating to emotional functioning in later life before going on to look at a some relevant empirical research findings related to older peoples experiences of emotions.