Benefits of Positivity Effect for The Elderly
The positivity effect is an age-linked tendency that overlooks positive over negative incentives for emotion and cognition (Kellough and Knight, 2011). Relative to their younger counterparts, older adults have a habit of remembering positive information than the negative ones. A primary collection of objectives drives during old age, comprising goals related to emotional satisfaction, affection, control, and instrumental needs. Since chronical age is always linked to concerns about perceived and actual time left in life, logical age difference develops in desired goals. Even when the elderly show more attention to undesirable than positive information but concentrate less on obnoxious than their younger counterparts, the pattern qualifies as a positivity effect (Kellough and Knight, 2011). This discussion, therefore, tends to elaborate on the advantageous effects of the ‘positive effect’ on the elderly.
The advantages of the positivity effect are many, and they contribute to the overall happiness of the individual. By overlooking and overshadowing the negative experiences in their lives with positive experiences, people tend to be happier (Kellough and Knight, 2011). Happy individuals are successful in most life domains like income, marriage, health, and friendships. The link between success and happiness does not exist because success makes individuals happy, but also because a positive effect prompts success (Reed and Carstensen, 2012). The positive impact is perceived as the source of many resources, desirable characteristics, and achievements associated with happiness.
Additionally, older people are likely to make optimal decisions compared to younger adults. The positive effect does not impair riskless choices in life; it, however, benefits subjective choice quality (Reed and Carstensen, 2012). For instance, if elderly adults are enquired to create lists of pros and cons to guide their resolutions, they would give more satisfying results compared to the younger adults with their choices. This shows that Preferential handling of positive compared to the negative barely affects their ability in decision making (Kellough and Knight, 2011). Instead, in most cases, it leads to better-quality decision outcomes. Studies show that problem-solving capabilities advance with a time of life (Kellough and Knight, 2011). Although adults have an overall preference for avoidant plans, they use more significant strategies flexibly when resolving situations.
Older adults demonstrate emotional difficulty in their discernment of emotional information (Reed and Carstensen, 2012). They exhibit changes in how they recall sensitive information and how they attend to the emotions they encounter in the environment (Reed and Carstensen, 2012). Their adaptive engagement with negative material extends to situations involving threats. However, according to Reed and Carstensen (2012), older adults are capable of identifying sad and angry faces compared to younger adults. Positivity helps older adults actively regulate the negative mood changes to reduce the stress burden. As a result, they incur fewer physical and emotional health problems.
Often, people assume that the positivity effect is off beam in the changing world (Reed and Carstensen, 2012). There is a need for an emotion that incites individuals‘ want to change. Nonetheless, the positivity effect is imperative for it allows one to concentrate on things that matter in life and focus on the good in life (Reed and Carstensen, 2012). The positive viewpoint will eventually enhance happiness, success, and healthy living.
References
Kellough, J., and Knight, B., 2011. Positivity Effects in Older Adults’ Perception of Facial Emotion: The Role of Future Time Perspective. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 67B (2), pp.150-158.
Reed, A., and Carstensen, L., 2012. The Theory Behind the Age-Related Positivity Effect. Frontiers in Psychology, 3.