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Empathic accuracy is the ability to infer another person's inner states. While early findings suggested older adults to be less empathically accurate on average than younger individuals, the context dependency of such age differences was emphasized more recently. Comparable empathic accuracy was observed in older and younger empathizers when conversational topics were positive or personally relevant or when empathic judgments were solely based on prior knowledge of the target. Motivational and cognitive mechanisms are assumed to underlie this context-dependent pattern of findings. A refined future understanding of the sources of variation in empathic skills within and across age groups will require unraveling the contributions of the empathizer, the target person, and their relationship. Moreover, improved insights into the implications of empathic skills in various phases of adulthood, including older adults’ social functioning and health, will require joint consideration of cognitive and affective components of empathy and their accompanying physiological processes.

Mindfulness is a state of awareness comprising an attentional focus on the present moment and a nonjudgmental stance. It is associated with affective well-being and assumed to facilitate adaptive emotion regulation. To support this claim at the within-person level, we investigated associations between 2 mindfulness facets (present-moment attention and nonjudgmental acceptance), 2 emotion-regulation strategies varying in adaptiveness (rumination and reflection), and positive and negative affect in everyday life using data from 2 experience-sampling (ESM) studies. Study 1 consisted of N = 70 students who completed 54 prompts on average. Study 2 consisted of N = 179 middle-aged adults who completed 69 prompts on average. Results from both studies were highly consistent: The mindfulness facet nonjudgmental acceptance was more strongly related to less concurrent rumination, whereas the mindfulness facet present-moment attention was related to more concurrent reflection. As predicted, both mindfulness facets interacted with rumination in the prediction of changes in affect. When individuals were in a more mindful state, rumination was less strongly associated with increases in negative affect, and was less strongly associated with decreases in positive affect. However, mindfulness interacted with reflection in the prediction of changes in affect in an unexpected way: At higher levels of nonjudgmental acceptance, reflection was no longer associated with changes in affect. Together, these results suggest that emotion regulation strategies can be more or less adaptive depending on the level of mindfulness. They also accord with the proposal that mindfulness inhibits maladaptive emotion regulation and its impact on affective well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Abstract. The Density Distribution approach to personality characterizes traits using both mean levels and within-person variability of behaviors. Recent theory highlights that emotion regulation (ER) is inherently variable, and this Density Distribution approach seems particularly suitable to understand both average tendencies and dynamics of ER as person-specific characteristics. However, there is not yet empirical evidence for this suggestion. To fill this gap, we investigated the reliability of density distribution information gathered from repeated assessments of state ER (within-person mean levels and standard deviations). Specifically, we studied the reliability of ER strategy use in terms of internal consistency and short- and long-term stability within and across two waves of experience sampling ( N = 153, M = 70 measurement occasions). Across both average tendencies and within-person variation, we found that individuals used different ER strategies relatively consistently. Overall, within-person ER mean levels and standard deviations were stable within and across the waves. Taken together, this suggests that the person-specific overall pattern of ER use in daily life is captured reliably using experience-sampling methodology (ESM).

Emotion differentiation, the ability to describe and label our own emotions in a differentiated and specific manner, has been repeatedly associated with well-being. However, it is unclear exactly what type of differentiation is most strongly related to well-being: the ability to make fine-grained distinctions between emotions that are relatively closely related (e.g. anger and irritation), the ability to make larger distinctions between very distinct emotions (e.g. anger and sadness), or the combination of both. To determine which type of differentiation is most predictive of well-being, we performed a comprehensive meta-analysis across six datasets. We examined the correlations between these three types of differentiation and several indicators of well-being (depression, emotional clarity, and self-esteem). Results showed that individuals differentiated most between very distinct emotions and least between more related emotions, and that an index computed across emotions from both the same and different emotion categories was most strongly associated with well-being indicators. ispartof: Cognition & Emotion vol:33 issue:2 pages:258-271 ispartof: location:England status: published

Emotion regulation (ER) strategies are often categorized as universally adaptive or maladaptive. However, it has recently been proposed that this view is overly simplistic: instead, adaptive ER involves applying strategies variably to meet contextual demands. Using data from four experience-sampling studies (Ns = 70, 95, 200, and 179), we tested the relationship between ER variability and negative affect (NA) in everyday life. The constantly changing demands of daily life provide a more ecologically valid context in which to test the role of variability. We calculated 2 global indicators of variability: within-strategy variability (of particular strategies across time) and between-strategy variability (across strategies at one time-point). Associations between within-strategy variability and NA were inconsistent. In contrast, when controlling for mean strategy endorsement, between-strategy variability was associated with reduced NA across both individuals and measurement occasions. This is the first evidence that variably choosing between different strategies within a situation may be adaptive in daily life. ispartof: Emotion vol:20 issue:3 pages:473-485 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Trait mindfulness is often conceptualized to comprise multiple facets such as attention to and acceptance of present-moment experiences. State mindfulness however is mostly conceptualized as unidimensional. As research on trait mindfulness indicates that differentiating aspects of mindfulness deepens our understanding of its associations with well-being, we tested the presence of four facets at both, the trait and the state level: acting with awareness, nonjudgmental acceptance, present-moment attention, and nonreactivity. Via an experience-sampling technology, 70 participants (aged 20–30 years, 50% female) reported their state mindfulness six times a day for several days. In multiple multilevel confirmatory factor analyses, three of the four facets were corroborated at both levels of analysis. The final three-factor model including acting with awareness, nonjudgmental acceptance, and present-moment attention was superior to a one-factor model implying that state mindfulness can be conceptualized as multidimensional. A multidimensional state assessment will likely be informative for future research questions.

Within the study of emotions, researchers have increasingly stressed the importance of studying individual differences in emotion dynamics and emotional responding and the way these relate to more stable differences in well-being. However, there is no clear picture regarding affective reactivity to positive events and how different emotional reactions relate to differences in well-being, particularly higher levels of well-being. Theoretical work and empirical findings from different lines of research (e.g., clinical studies, aging literature, positive and personality psychology) support either of 2 predictions: Higher well-being is related to an enhanced or reduced affective reactivity to positive events in daily life. Testing these opposing predictions, we examined global well-being and affective reactivity to daily positive events in 6 studies using the experience-sampling or daily diary method (Ns = 70, 66, 95, 200, 76, and 101). Global well-being was measured with various indicators and a well-being composite score. Across the majority of studies, we found that higher global well-being was associated with reduced affective reactivity to positive events in daily life, as shown by smaller decreases in momentary negative affect. In 3 of the 6 studies, higher well-being composite scores were also associated with smaller increases in momentary positive affect. These findings seem to suggest that people with higher global well-being profit less from the joy of a positive event they experience in daily life. Instead, for people with lower well-being, positive events might be a meaningful way to brighten one’s momentary mood. ispartof: Emotion vol:20 issue:3 pages:376-390 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Mindfulness is commonly defined as a multidimensional mode of being attentive to, and aware of, momentary experiences while taking a nonjudgmental and accepting stance. These qualities have been linked to 2 different facets of affective well-being: being attentive is proposed to lead to an appreciation of experiences as they are, and thus to positive affect (PA). Accepting unpleasant experiences in a nonjudgmental fashion has been hypothesized to reduce negative affect (NA). Alternatively, however, attention may increase both positive and negative affectivity, whereas nonjudgmental acceptance may modify how people relate to their experiences. Previous research has considered such differential associations at the trait level, although a mindful mode may be understood as a state of being. Using an experience-sampling methodology (ESM) with smartphones, the present research therefore links different state mindfulness facets to positive and NA in daily life. Seventy students (50% female, 20-30 years old) of different disciplines participated in the study. Based on multidimensional assessments of self-reported state mindfulness and state affect, the findings corroborate the hypotheses on the differential predictive value of 2 mindfulness facets: Participants experienced more PA when they were attentive to the present moment and less NA when they nonjudgmentally accepted momentary experiences. Furthermore, only nonjudgmental acceptance buffered the impact of daily hassles on affective well-being. The study contributes to a more fine-grained understanding of the within-person mechanisms relating mindfulness to affective well-being in daily life. Future interventions may be able to enhance different aspects of affective well-being by addressing specific facets of mindfulness. (PsycINFO Database Record

Cognitive empathy (the ability to infer another person's thoughts and feelings) and emotional empathy (the ability to emotionally resonate with another person's feelings) have been associated with social adjustment. Traditionally, these skills are assessed with self-report measures. However, these may not adequately reflect people's actual empathic abilities. There is only little and inconsistent empirical evidence on associations between performance-based empathy and positive social adjustment. In the study presented here, we gathered further evidence for such an association. Using a realistic interaction task in which unfamiliar women were paired into dyads and talked about positive and negative events in their lives, we assessed empathic accuracy (an indicator of cognitive empathy) and emotional congruence (an indicator of emotional empathy). Additionally, we obtained 2 indicators of social adjustment: participants' self-rated satisfaction regarding the communication with their partner in the interaction task, and their self-rated satisfaction with social relationships in general. We furthermore explored the role of potential moderators, which may help to explain discrepant past findings. To test for contextual and interindividual differences, we distinguished between positive and negative emotional valence in the empathy task and investigated 2 adult age groups (102 younger women: 20-31 years; 106 older: 69-80 years). For almost all analyses, only empathic skills for positive (not for negative) affect were predictive of social adjustment, and the associations were comparable for younger and older women. These results underline the role of valence in associations between empathic skills and social adjustment across the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record