Prior research with young adults has shown how emotion goals (i.e., cognitive representations of preferred emotional states) can be instrumental (positive or negative) depending on the context and how this context sensitivity is linked to higher well-being. However, this research has overlooked older adults. We argue it is important looking at this age group as there is mixed evidence given that on one hand they have been described as exhibiting a positivity bias (hedonic orientation; preference for positive emotion goals), and on the other hand, being capable of suppressing this when it is adaptive to do so. Importantly, this bias towards positive emotion goals has been linked to better emotion regulation and higher well-being in older adults. In order to understand whether older adults can also exhibit instrumental emotion goals and whether this is linked to well-being, we conducted an exploratory study with older (N = 43, M_age = 68.33), middle (N = 47, M_age = 43.83), and young adults (N = 47; M_age = 21.98) who reported about their general and contextual emotion goals (in collaboration and confrontation), their well-being, and their current positive and negative affect. Although older adults reported lower negative affect than young adults, there were no age differences for general and contextualized emotion goals. Across the three age groups, a higher preference for happiness in general and in collaboration was linked to higher well-being. The obtained results highlight the need to study emotion goals longitudinally to better understand their possible changes throughout the lifespan and their influence on well-being.

中文翻译：

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一般和情境化的情绪目标及其与成年晚期、中期和青年期幸福感的联系

先前对年轻人的研究表明，情绪目标（即偏好情绪状态的认知表征）如何根据情境发挥作用（积极或消极），以及这种情境敏感性如何与更高的幸福感相关联。然而，这项研究忽略了老年人。我们认为关注这个年龄组很重要，因为有混合的证据表明一方面他们被描述为表现出积极的偏见（享乐取向；对积极情绪目标的偏好），另一方面，能够抑制这在它是适应性的时候这样做。重要的是，这种对积极情绪目标的偏见与老年人更好的情绪调节和更高的幸福感有关。N  = 43，M_年龄 = 68.33），中年（N  = 47，M_年龄 = 43.83），和青年（N  = 47；M_年龄） = 21.98）他们报告了他们的一般和情境情感目标（在合作和对抗中）、他们的幸福感以及他们当前的积极和消极影响。尽管老年人报告的负面影响低于年轻人，但一般和情境化的情绪目标没有年龄差异。在这三个年龄组中，总体上和合作中对幸福的更高偏好与更高的幸福感有关。获得的结果强调了纵向研究情绪目标的必要性，以更好地了解它们在整个生命周期中可能发生的变化及其对幸福感的影响。