A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Subjective Age and the Association With Cognition, Subjective Well-Being, and Depression.

OBJECTIVES: A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to quantify the degree to which subjective age is associated with cognition, subjective well-being, and depression. METHOD: A systematic search was performed in three electronic social scientific databases, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science in May 2018. A manual forward and backward citation search of articles meeting the criteria for inclusion, including a mean participant age of 40+ years, was conducted in November 2019. Twenty-four independent data sets were included in the meta-analysis. RESULTS: Overall, a younger subjective age was related to enhanced subjective well-being and cognitive performance, and reduced depressive symptoms (r = .18). This association was stronger among collectivist (r = .24) than individualist (r = .16) cultures. Mean chronological age across samples (ranging from 55 to 83 years), type of subjective age scoring, and gender did not influence the strength of the overall association. Further analysis revealed that subjective age was individually associated with depressive symptoms (r = .20), subjective well-being (r = .17), and cognition (r = .14), and none had a stronger association with subjective age than the other. DISCUSSION: The results indicate a small yet significant association between subjective age and important developmental outcomes

Systematic review and meta-analysis of age-related differences in instructed emotion regulation success

© Copyright 2018 Brady et al. The process model of emotion regulation (ER) is based on stages in the emotion generative process at which regulation may occur. This meta-analysis examines age-related differences in the subjective, behavioral, and physiological outcomes of instructed ER strategies that may be initiated after an emotional event has occurred; attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation. Within-process strategy, stimulus type, and valence were also tested as potential moderators of the effect of age on ER. A systematic search of the literature identified 156 relevant comparisons from 11 studies. Few age-related differences were found. In our analysis of the subjective outcome of response modulation strategies, young adults used expressive enhancement successfully (g = 0.48), but not expressive suppression (g = 0.04). Response modulation strategies had a small positive effect among older adults, and enhancement vs suppression did not moderate this success (g = 0.31 and g = 0.10, respectively). Young adults effectively used response modulation to regulate subjective emotion in response to pictures (g = 0.41) but not films (g = 0.01). Older adults were able to regulate in response to both pictures (g = 0.26) and films (g = 0.11). Interestingly, both age groups effectively used detached reappraisal, but not positive reappraisal to regulate emotional behavior. We conclude that, in line with well-established theories of socioemotional aging, there is a lack of evidence for age differences in the effects of instructed ER strategies, with some moderators suggesting more consistent effectiveness for older compared to younger adults

Young Schema Questionnaire – Short Form Version 3 (YSQ-S3): Preliminary validation in older adults

© 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Objectives: The aim of the current study was to establish the reliability and validity of one of the most used schema questionnaires, Young Schema Questionnaire Short Form Version 3 (YSQ-S3) in older adults. Method: 104 participants aged 60–84 years were recruited. They were administered a battery of questionnaires, including the YSQ-S3, Young-Atkinson Mode Inventory (YAMI), Germans (Personality) Screener, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), The Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) and the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPNS). The YSQ-S3 was completed a second time by 83 participants a median of 12 days later. Results: Satisfactory internal consistency reliability was found for 13 of the 18 early maladaptive schemas (EMS) of the YSQ-S3. Test-retest reliability was satisfactory for 17 of 18 EMS. Convergent validity was evident from significant correlations between the EMS of the YSQ-S3 and the vulnerable child and angry child schema modes from the YAMI. Congruent validity was evident from correlations of the majority of the EMS with the GDS, the GAI, German's (Personality) Screener and the BPNS measure. Conclusions: By and large the YSQ-S3 demonstrates internal and test re-test reliability in as well as congruent and convergent validity, in older adults. This suggests the YSQ-S3 may be of use in work establishing the utility of schema therapy in this population, and that schema therapy with older people warrants further exploration. Notwithstanding this some re-development of some EMS items appears to be required for the YSQ-S3 to be more relevant to older people

Schema in older adults: does the schema mode model apply?

BACKGROUND: The relevance of schema theory to psychopathology, in particular personality disorder, in younger adults is established. Investigations into the relevance of schema theory to older adults, however, is highly limited. AIMS: To consider the relationship of schema modes to psychopathology in older adults and establish whether maladaptive schema modes are associated with unmet needs and that this relationship is mediated by the healthy adult mode of responding in this population. METHOD: One hundred and four older adults were recruited from an established database. Participants completed questionnaires assessing psychopathology, schema modes (YAMI: Young-Atkinson Mode Inventory) and basic psychological needs (BPNS: Basic Psychological Needs Scale - autonomy, competence and relatedness). Ninety-four responses were included after applying exclusion criteria. RESULTS: The healthy adult schema mode was found to be associated with reduced psychopathology, and maladaptive child modes (angry and vulnerable child) to increased psychopathology. The healthy adult schema mode mediated the relationship between maladaptive child modes and needs satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: As predicted by schema theory, the presence of one of the maladaptive child modes makes it difficult for an older individual to have their needs met, but the presence of healthy adult mode works to support this process

Additive opportunistic capture explains group hunting benefits in African wild dogs

African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are described as highly collaborative endurance pursuit hunters based on observations derived primarily from the grass plains of East Africa. However, the remaining population of this endangered species mainly occupies mixed woodland savannah where hunting strategies appear to differ from those previously described. We used high-resolution GPS and inertial technology to record fine-scale movement of all members of a single pack of six adult African wild dogs in northern Botswana. The dogs used multiple short-distance hunting attempts with a low individual kill rate (15.5%), but high group feeding rate due to the sharing of prey. Use of high-level cooperative chase strategies (coordination and collaboration) was not recorded. In the mixed woodland habitats typical of their current range, simultaneous, opportunistic, short-distance chasing by dogs pursuing multiple prey (rather than long collaborative pursuits of single prey by multiple individuals) could be the key to their relative success in these habitats

Age-related differences in instructed positive reappraisal and mindful attention

The present study assessed age-related differences in the success of instructed mindful attention and positive reappraisal, as well as trait affect and emotion regulation. Methods: Young and older adults were instructed to regulate their emotions while viewing frightening and amusing films using three separate instructions (just watch, positive reappraisal, or mindful attention). Participants rated the strength of their experience of the target emotion (fear or amusement) and success in following the instruction to regulate. Electrodermal activity was recorded continuously, and facial electromyography measured positive and negative facial expression. Trait measures of affect and emotion regulation were also administered. Results: Electrodermal activity provided strong evidence that young adults successfully regulate fear using mindful attention and positive reappraisal relative to a just watch condition. Older adults’ electrodermal activity is was constant across conditions, and lower than young adults’ in the just watch condition, suggesting general hyporeactivity to fear. Subjective data suggest that young, but not older, adults successfully downregulate amusement using mindful attention. Conclusion: These findings provide some evidence for emotion regulation benefits in young relative to older age. However, these youthful benefits may reflect reduced initial reactivity among older adults

The weight of advice in older age.

Seeking advice from others may improve decision-making, particularly in older adults when cognitive decline can impair decision-making. This study measured the extent to which older adults rated the value of advice and used that advice in their decisions. Young (aged 18–37 years; n = 57) and older (aged 62–84 years; n = 56) adults completed a judge-advisor task incorporating advice from an expert and a novice. To capture interindividual differences in ratings of advice value and advice use (i.e., weight of advice), desire for autonomy, working memory, and fluid intelligence were assessed. Relative to young adults, older adults rated novice advice as being more valuable and were more likely to adjust their estimates based on expert and especially novice advice. Among older adults, poorer working memory and reduced preference for autonomous decision-making were associated with greater ratings of the value of novice advice, while better fluid intelligence was associated with increased ratings of the value of expert advice. Overall, older adults give more weight to advice and cognitive decline appears to compromise discrimination of the quality of that advice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved

Age differences in conscious versus subconscious social perception: The influence of face age and valence on gaze following

© 2014 American Psychological Association. Gaze following is the primary means of establishing joint attention with others and is subject to age-related decline. In addition, young but not older adults experience an own-age bias in gaze following. The current research assessed the effects of subconscious processing on these age-related differences. Participants responded to targets that were either congruent or incongruent with the direction of gaze displayed in supraliminal and subliminal images of young and older faces. These faces displayed either neutral (Study 1) or happy and fearful (Study 2) expressions. In Studies 1 and 2, both age groups demonstrated gaze-directed attention by responding faster to targets that were congruent as opposed to incongruent with gaze-cues. In Study 1, subliminal stimuli did not attenuate the age-related decline in gaze-cuing, but did result in an own-age bias among older participants. In Study 2, gaze-cuing was reduced for older relative to young adults in response to supraliminal stimuli, and this could not be attributed to reduced visual acuity or age group differences in the perceived emotional intensity of the gaze-cue faces. Moreover, there were no age differences in gaze-cuing when responding to subliminal faces that were emotionally arousing. In addition, older adults demonstrated an own-age bias for both conscious and subconscious gaze- cuing when faces expressed happiness but not fear. We discuss growing evidence for age-related preservation of subconscious relative to conscious social perception, as well as an interaction between face age and valence in social perception

Estimating Surface Area in Early Hominins

Height and weight-based methods of estimating surface area have played an important role in the development of the current consensus regarding the role of thermoregulation in human evolution. However, such methods may not be reliable when applied to early hominins because their limb proportions differ markedly from those of humans. Here, we report a study in which this possibility was evaluated by comparing surface area estimates generated with the best-known height and weight-based method to estimates generated with a method that is sensitive to proportional differences. We found that the two methods yield indistinguishable estimates when applied to taxa whose limb proportions are similar to those of humans, but significantly different results when applied to taxa whose proportions differ from those of humans. We also found that the discrepancy between the estimates generated by the two methods is almost entirely attributable to inter-taxa differences in limb proportions. One corollary of these findings is that we need to reassess hypotheses about the role of thermoregulation in human evolution that have been developed with the aid of height and weight-based methods of estimating body surface area. Another is that we need to use other methods in future work on fossil hominin body surface areas

An integrated analysis and comparison of serum, saliva and sebum for COVID-19 metabolomics.

The majority of metabolomics studies to date have utilised blood serum or plasma, biofluids that do not necessarily address the full range of patient pathologies. Here, correlations between serum metabolites, salivary metabolites and sebum lipids are studied for the first time. 83 COVID-19 positive and negative hospitalised participants provided blood serum alongside saliva and sebum samples for analysis by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. Widespread alterations to serum-sebum lipid relationships were observed in COVID-19 positive participants versus negative controls. There was also a marked correlation between sebum lipids and the immunostimulatory hormone dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate in the COVID-19 positive cohort. The biofluids analysed herein were also compared in terms of their ability to differentiate COVID-19 positive participants from controls; serum performed best by multivariate analysis (sensitivity and specificity of 0.97), with the dominant changes in triglyceride and bile acid levels, concordant with other studies identifying dyslipidemia as a hallmark of COVID-19 infection. Sebum performed well (sensitivity 0.92; specificity 0.84), with saliva performing worst (sensitivity 0.78; specificity 0.83). These findings show that alterations to skin lipid profiles coincide with dyslipidaemia in serum. The work also signposts the potential for integrated biofluid analyses to provide insight into the whole-body atlas of pathophysiological conditions