Employee age moderates within-person associations of daily negative work events with emotion regulation, attention, and well-being

Does advanced age give employees an advantage in face of negative work experiences through their higher emotion-regulation competence? Across days, the occurrence of negative work events is associated with fluctuations in attention, motivation, and well-being. This study examined whether these within-person associations are reduced at advanced employee age, indicating higher resilience. The study further investigated the role of emotion-regulation goal activation and strategy use in these associations. Across two work weeks, 123 employees aged 22 to 63 years provided 1,092 daily reports on affective work events, emotion regulation, attentional focus, persistence, and end-of-day affect. On days with negative-events, participants reported higher activation of emotion-regulation goals, lower attentional focus, and higher negative affect at the end of the workday. Effects were intensified on days with highly negative events. Yet, within-person associations of high-intensity events with emotion-regulation goals, attention, and end-of-day negative affect were reduced at higher age. Further analyses that accounted for age differences in emotion-regulation goals suggested that these play a role in age-related reductions in the event-related disturbance of attentional focus and well-being. There was no evidence of age-differential strategy use on eventful days. Findings are in line with proposed mechanisms underlying older employees’ resilience to daily stress

Age-related differences in valence and arousal ratings of pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Do ratings become more extreme with age?

The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) has been widely used in aging-oriented research on emotion. However, no ratings for older adults are available. The aim of the present study was to close this gap by providing ratings of valence and arousal for 504 IAPS pictures by 53 young and 53 older adults. Both age groups rated positive pictures as less arousing, resulting in a stronger linear association between valence and arousal, than has been found in previous studies. This association was even stronger in older than in young adults. Older adults perceived negative pictures as more negative and more arousing and positive pictures as more positive and less arousing than young adults did. This might indicate a dedifferentiation of emotional processing in old age. On the basis of a picture recognition task, we also report memorability scores for individual pictures and how they relate to valence and arousal ratings. Data for all the pictures are archived at www.psychonomic.org/archiv

Conducting experiments and intervention studies to understand age and work

Experiments are essential for testing theories and thus proposed causal relationships. Interventions, as a special type of experiments, apply theories to solve practical problems or increase desirable outcomes. Despite their obvious importance, experiments and interventions are relatively rare in age and work research. The main reasons for this scarcity probably lie in the impossibility of randomizing participants to different chronological age groups, and in the large amount of effort and risky return-on-investment of intervention research. To better address these challenges, this chapter outlines two strategies for designing experimental research and a four-step approach for intervention studies to understand age and work. As to experiments, we suggest the experimental manipulation of (a) participants’ internal context (i.e., their imagination or perceptions) and (b) participants’ external context (i.e., the outer context conditions). As to interventions, we suggest a sequence that involves (1) a systematic problem description, (2) a logic model of the problem, (3) the design of the intervention, and (4) monitoring and evaluation. By providing examples and practical recommendations, we hope to stimulate more experiments and interventions in the field of age and work

Beliefs about the malleability of professional skills and abilities:Development and validation of a scale

The concept of a professional skills and abilities mindset denotes beliefs that professional skills and abilities are either malleable (growth mindset) or are uncontrollable and difficult to change (fixed mindset). Based on the career construction theory, we argue that employees’ professional skills and abilities mindset represents an indicator of adaptive readiness that predicts career adaptability and adaptive responses in terms of learning and career engagement. Across four studies (total N = 709), we developed the 6-item professional skills and abilities mindset scale. Study 1 establishes a two-factor structure, satisfactory psychometric properties, and convergent validity. Studies 2 and 3 provide evidence of the criterion validity of the growth but not the fixed mindset subscale for career engagement and learning through career adaptability. Study 4 establishes moderate retest reliability across four weeks. This research establishes a previously neglected predictor of career-related resources and behaviors. Findings can inform vocational consulting and coaching

Experience, vulnerability, or overload? Emotional job demands as moderator in trajectories of emotional well-being and job satisfaction across the working lifespan

Employees exert emotional effort in order to perform their work effectively, albeit to varying degrees based on their occupation. These emotional job demands (EJDs) affect employees’ well-being, yet evidence is mixed as to whether these effects are positive or negative. One limiting factor in extant studies is that they investigated short-term effects or cross-sectional relationships between EJDs (usually assessed at the employee level) and work outcomes. The present study used an accelerated longitudinal design with a 10-year timespan of data (effectively covering the whole working lifespan) to test the effects of EJDs at the occupational level on long-term trajectories of well-being. Drawing on the model of strengths and vulnerabilities integration (SAVI) from the lifespan psychology literature, we tested three competing effects: an experience effect (EJDs predict increased well-being), a vulnerability effect (EJDs predict diminished well-being), and an overload effect (a non-linear relationship in which very high levels lead to more unfavorable trajectories). Using data of N = 2,478 working adults in Germany drawn from the Socioeconomic Panel Study (SOEP), in tandem with data on EJDs from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), we found an overload effect of EJDs on trajectories of positive affect and job satisfaction. However, EJDs did not influence trajectories of negative affect. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice

When Ignoring Negative Feedback Is Functional:Presenting a Model of Motivated Feedback Disengagement

Contrary to popular belief, negative feedback occasionally hinders performance improvements. Investigations targeting this feedback-performance gap usually rest on two assumptions: (a) Feedback recipients want to improve their performance (have an improvement goal), and (b) feedback recipients engage with the negative feedback. We argue that people sometimes disengage from negative feedback for hedonic-goal attainment (to feel good). To explain such functional feedback disengagement, we conceptualize feedback processing from an emotion-regulation perspective, the model of motivated feedback disengagement. We posit that feedback-induced negative affect may render hedonic goals more salient than improvement goals, motivating emotion regulation. After forming the intention to regulate their emotions, feedback recipients select and implement an emotion-regulation strategy. We consider two common engagement strategies (reappraisal and feedback focus) and two common disengagement strategies (distraction and feedback removal). These strategies differentially impact recipients’ affect and feedback processing. Strategy-, person-, and situation-related factors influence strategy choice. Feedback processing is cyclical and dynamically unfolds over time. The model provides novel directions for future investigations and practical implications for stakeholders in negative-feedback contexts

Predicting real-world behaviour:Cognition-emotion links across adulthood and everyday functioning at work

Inspired by the discovery of positive age trends in emotional well-being across adulthood, lifespan researchers have uncovered fascinating age differences in cognition–emotion interactions in healthy adult samples, for example in emotion processing, memory, reactivity, perception, and regulation. Taking stock of this body of research, I identify four trends and five remaining gaps in our understanding of emotional functioning in adulthood. In particular, I suggest that the field should pay stronger attention to the prediction of real-world behaviour. Using the sample case of work functioning, I outline gaps in current knowledge, including the lack of data on middle-aged adults, the neglect of relevant cognitive-emotional mechanisms, and the unclear role of life experience. Filling these gaps will enable progress in research on emotional aging in and beyond the work setting and enhance its practical utility for individuals, organisations, and society

Empathy at work:The role of age and emotional job demands

Empathy—which typically instigates prosocial behavior—comprises both cognitive and affective facets. Research suggests that the cognitive facet of empathy (empathic accuracy) declines with age, whereas the affective facets of empathy (emotional congruence and sympathy) remain stable or increase with age. Going beyond main effects of age, we tested whether working in occupations with varying emotional job demands (EJDs) moderates the effects of age on empathy. We predicted that emotionally demanding occupations provide opportunities to practice empathy and, as a result, may lessen the negative relationship between age and empathic accuracy and/or strengthen the (positive) relationship between age and the affective facets of empathy. A sample of 128 employees (19–65 years) who differed in self-reported EJDs was recruited. Participants viewed film clips portraying different persons retelling a work event during which they experienced positive or negative emotions. After each clip, participants rated the intensity of the protagonist’s and their own emotions. Consistent with prior research, our analyses revealed a negative association between age and empathic accuracy, while there were no age differences in emotional congruence and a positive association between age and sympathy. Only the relationship between age and emotional congruence was moderated by EJDs. Contrary to our prediction, relatively older employees in emotionally demanding jobs experienced lower emotional congruence than younger employees. This may suggest that people learn about the double-edged nature of sharing other’s feelings as they progress in their career, and thus, keep a healthy distance. Implications for age-comparative research on prosocial processes across adulthood are discussed

Face masks reduce emotion-recognition accuracy and perceived closeness

Face masks became the symbol of the global fight against the coronavirus. While face masks’ medical benefits are clear, little is known about their psychological consequences. Drawing on theories of the social functions of emotions and rapid trait impressions, we tested hypotheses on face masks’ effects on emotion-recognition accuracy and social judgments (perceived trustworthiness, likability, and closeness). Our preregistered study with 191 German adults revealed that face masks diminish people’s ability to accurately categorize an emotion expression and make target persons appear less close. Exploratory analyses further revealed that face masks buffered the negative effect of negative (vs. non-negative) emotion expressions on perceptions of trustworthiness, likability, and closeness. Associating face masks with the coronavirus’ dangers predicted higher perceptions of closeness for masked but not for unmasked faces. By highlighting face masks’ effects on social functioning, our findings inform policymaking and point at contexts where alternatives to face masks are needed

Sexual jokes and conversations at the workplace and their relation to employee well-being: Results from a longitudinal study

Ambient social sexual behaviour at work refers to sexual jokes and conversations at the workplace. Prior cross-sectional studies indicate that this behaviour is relatively widespread and tends to be associated with negative well-being. We revisit this research by investigating the outcomes of sexual jokes and conversations at work after 1 year in a comparatively large employee sample. The perceived frequency of sexual jokes and conversations at work was negatively related to job satisfaction and positively related to sick days and anger 1 year later, controlling for baseline levels. Moderating effects of gender and age were not significant. Half of the sample reported that such jokes and conversations were relatively common in their workplace, both before and after the onset of the MeToo movement. We discuss implications and propose ideas for studying the theoretical mechanisms of this phenomenon