Emotional aging theories suggest that individuals increasingly prioritize close relationships and positive emotions as they get older. Past studies often used single-subject designs to test these predictions. Dyadic studies are rare and even fewer have examined how romantic partners interact in everyday life. Social sensing offers novel opportunities to study couples' socioemotional processes "in the wild" through naturalistic conversations. In this 21-day experience-sampling study, 55 younger (18-33 years) and 43 older couples (57-87 years) recorded at least two conversations on a smartphone. We used natural language analysis to examine age differences in we-ness (i.e., communal orientation and based on we-pronouns), positive and negative emotions (emotion words and laughter), and central themes (using the meaning extraction method) in daily conversations. The results from multilevel modeling revealed that older (vs. younger) couples' conversations were characterized by greater we-ness and less positive emotions (i.e., fewer positive emotion words and less laughter). Exploratory follow-up analyses suggest that age differences in positive emotions may have been driven by arousal, as older couples' conversations scored lower in positive high-arousal words. Age differences in negative emotion word use were not statistically significant. Analyses further revealed seven common conversation themes (e.g., social relationships, daily routine, food, money, or sleep). Younger couples, for example, referred more to other people and older couples more to places or orientation. In line with emotional aging theories, these findings show that older adults exhibit greater interdependence and lower high-arousal positive emotions in their everyday interactions and open the door for the future research on real-life couple interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Previous research has outlined synchronies between romantic partners' everyday affect, health, and well-being, but it remains unclear whether similar processes take place for real-life cognitive abilities and whether there are age differences. The present study investigates the coregulation of cognitive functioning using the example of prospective memory (PM), the ability to remember and correctly execute future intentions. Over 21 days, 61 younger (aged 18-33 years) and 38 older couples (aged 57-86 years) completed an ambulatory assessment comprising a daily PM task. Specifically, we examined the impact of social proximity (i.e., physical closeness and psychological intimacy) on the dyadic coregulation of daily PM. Results revealed that partners' PM performances appeared to be coregulated - independently of whether partners had physically met. In men (but not women), this coregulation was more pronounced on days with greater intimacy and more time spent together. The results were not moderated by age group. In conclusion, the present study indicates that romantic partners coregulate their everyday cognitive performances and that both the physical and psychological dimension of social proximity may impact couples' daily PM performance. Importantly, this implies that relationship quality is essential to a more fine-grained understanding of underlying effects in everyday cognitive processes.

Emotions in close relationships play an important role in well-being, health, and longevity across adulthood. While research has uncovered important insights into how individuals experience and express emotions in close relationships, emotional processes within dyads have received less attention. This symposium brings together four contributions that provide novel insights into antecedents and consequences of emotional functioning in dyads across adulthood. Contributions examine multiple emotion response systems (i.e., subjective emotional experiences, behaviors, physiological functioning, language), multiple emotion contexts (i.e., positive and negative), diverse dyads (i.e., healthy married couples, dementia care dyads), and different study designs (i.e., laboratory-based observations of dyadic interactions, ambulatory assessments, longitudinal studies). Dr. Meier and colleagues will present findings from a laboratory-based study on marital interaction, showing how socioeconomic status as an important macro-level factor shapes physiological linkage in middle-aged married couples. Fu and colleagues will present findings showing that language that conveys validation or invalidation during dyadic interactions can predict spouses’ emotional experiences, drawing from a laboratory-based study of married couples. Dr. Yoneda and colleagues will present findings from a large dyadic ambulatory assessment study on positivity resonance (i.e., co-experienced positive emotions) and links with momentary cortisol in spouses’ daily lives, highlighting important benefits of positivity resonance at a biomarker level in older couples. Dr. Chen and colleagues will combine data from two studies on dementia care dyads, revealing important links between physiological linkage and caregiver mental health and well-being across both laboratory and real-life contexts. Dr. English will be the discussant.

Connections with our loved ones play a critical role in our health, and emotions during marital interactions in mid-life can predict the development of health problems in later life. Research has documented greater interdependence among people from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds, but little is known about whether greater interdependence also emerges at a physiological level in low-SES contexts. This laboratory-based study examined physiological linkage (i.e., coordinated changes in partners’ interbeat intervals, the time between two successive heart beats) in 48 married couples (96 spouses; M = 43.38, SD = 9.25, range: 21-68 years) from highly diverse SES and racialized backgrounds across two marital interaction contexts (conflict and pleasant conversations). We analyzed both in-phase (i.e., coordinated changes in the same direction) and anti-phase (i.e., coordinated changes in opposing directions) physiological linkage. The overall number of observations was N = 192 (48 couples with four repeated measures; i.e., in-phase and anti-phase linkage in conflict and pleasant conversations). Repeated measures analyses showed that, across both conversations, spouses from lower (vs. higher) SES backgrounds showed greater in-phase and lower anti-phase physiological linkage. That is, their heart rates were more likely to change in similar ways and less likely to change in opposite ways. These findings provide first evidence linking socioeconomic status—a key macro-level factor shaping resources, rank, and societal hierarchy—with physiological linkage in married couples. Viewed through the lens of physiological linkage as an amplifier of emotions, this study prompts further research on the risks and resources for healthy aging in couples from lower-SES backgrounds.

Mit den Lebensjahren kann die resiliente Bewältigung herausfordernder Situationen die Entstehung von Weisheit katalysieren, wenn bestimmte Ressourcen vorliegen. Die COVID-19-Pandemie stellte eine kollektive Belastungssituation dar, bei der diese Ressourcen benötigt wurden. In dieser Studie wird ein Interventionsansatz zur Aktivierung von Ressourcen im Lebensrückblick von älteren Personen vorgestellt, der eine modifizierte Form des Expressiven Schreibens (ES) darstellt. Weiterhin erlauben Inhaltsanalysen der von Studienteilnehmenden geschriebenen Texte einen Einblick in die Ressourcen, die bei der durch das Schreiben angestoßenen Reflexion genannt werden. In der CoCoCap65+-Studie zur Förderung gesunden Alterns während der Pandemie wurde das modifizierte ES über drei Wochen durchgeführt. Die entstandenen Texte von 30 Menschen (M = 71,9 Jahre) wurden hinsichtlich der Bezüge zu weisheitsnahen Ressourcen kodiert. Es konnten Bezüge zu allen weisheitsnahen Ressourcen gemäß dem MORE-Modell (Glück u. Bluck 2013) hergestellt werden. Insbesondere wurden die aktive Bewältigung und die Emotionsregulation im Kontext herausfordernder Situationen thematisiert. Häufige Inhalte waren der Umgang mit der Pandemie, positive und negative affektive Valenzen, Einstellungen und Beziehungen. Die Ergebnisse unterstützen die Annahme, dass lebensrückblicksbezogene Formen des ES weisheitsnahe Ressourcen im Alter aktivieren können.

Latent semantic similarity (LSS) is a measure of the similarity of information exchanges in a conversation. Challenging the assumption that higher LSS bears more positive psychological meaning, we propose that this association might depend on the type of conversation people have. On the one hand, the share-mind perspective would predict that higher LSS should be associated with more positive emotional experiences across the board. The broaden-and-build theory, on the other hand, would predict that higher LSS should be inversely associated with more positive emotional experiences specifically in pleasant conversations. Linear mixed modeling based on conversations among 50 long-term married couples supported the latter prediction. That is, partners experienced greater positive emotions when their overall information exchanges were more dissimilar in pleasant (but not conflict) conversations. This work highlights the importance of context in understanding the emotional correlates of LSS and exemplifies how modern natural language processing tools can be used to evaluate competing theory-driven hypotheses in social psychology.

When people connect, their heart rates may become synchronized. Research has documented greater interdependence among people from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds, but little is known about whether greater interdependence also emerges at a physiological level in low-SES contexts. The present laboratory-based study examined physiological linkage (i.e., coordinated changes in interbeat interval on a second-by-second basis) in 48 married couples (96 spouses) from highly diverse SES and racialized backgrounds across two marital interaction contexts (i.e., a conflict and a pleasant conversation). We analyzed both in-phase (i.e., coordinated changes in same direction) and anti-phase (i.e., coordinated changes in opposing directions) linkage. The overall sample size was N = 192 observations (48 couples with four repeated measures: in-phase and anti-phase linkage in conflict and pleasant conversations). Repeated measures analyses showed that, across both conversations, spouses from lower (vs. higher) SES backgrounds showed lower anti-phase and greater in-phase physiological linkage, with the difference in anti-phase linkage being more pronounced. That is, their heart rates were less likely to change in opposite ways and more likely to change in similar ways. These findings provide the first evidence that privileged couples connect differently from less privileged couples at a physiological level, contributing to conversations on how macro-level factors become embedded and embodied in the micro.

Emotional processes in marital interactions predict late-life well-being and health outcomes, but few studies have examined how words that convey validation or invalidation may shape the emotional climate of marital interactions. In a laboratory-based dyadic interaction study with 49 married middle-aged couples (N = 98 individuals; ages 21-65) from diverse socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds, we examined links between assent (e.g., “mhm”, “yes”) and negation (e.g., “no”, “never”) language and emotional experiences. Couples engaged in 10-minute videotaped conflict and pleasant conversations. Then, they individually reported on the intensity of their subjective negative and positive emotional experiences. The relative frequency of assent and negation words during each conversation was calculated using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software. Linear mixed models revealed that individuals’ assent language and partners’ assent language were both associated with lower levels of negative emotional experiences. Moreover, partners’ negation language was associated with higher levels of own negative emotional experiences, and a conversation interaction effect revealed that this association was driven by conflict conversations. Results generalized across gender and remained stable when controlling for age, socioeconomic status, negation/assent word frequency, and total word count. These findings highlight the dyadic interplay between spouses’ use of assent and negation words and emotional experiences. Implications for dyadic interaction research with couples across the lifespan and large-scale text analysis will be discussed.

Feelings of affection (i.e., fondness and intense positive regard) are a hallmark of close relationships. Existing studies have often examined affection as a trait or behavior, but rarely as an emotional experience in social interactions. In two dyadic observational interaction studies (total N = 314 individuals), 49 US-based married couples (age range: 21-65) and 108 friendship dyads (age range: 15-26) engaged in two naturalistic 10-min conversations about (a) a topic of disagreement (conflict conversation) and (b) something they enjoyed doing together (pleasant conversation) and reported on their subjective emotional experiences (e.g., affection, using an emotion checklist following each conversation) and relationship satisfaction. Conversation transcripts were analyzed using natural language analysis. Results showed that experiences of affection were most strongly associated with experiences of compassion, amusement, and excitement, as well as with less anger, and were unrelated to most other negative emotions. Natural language analysis further showed that greater positive (but not negative) emotional tone was associated with greater affection (especially among friends in the pleasant conversations). Levels of affection were consistently higher in pleasant versus conflict conversations and similar across marital versus friendship interactions. Finally, experiences of affection were associated with greater relationship satisfaction for friends across conversations and for spouses (women) in the pleasant conversation. These findings contribute to our understanding of affection as a foundational emotional experience in close relationships and highlight avenues for future research.

Natural language use is a promising candidate for the development of innovative measures of well-being to complement self-report measures. The type of words individuals use can reveal important psychological processes that underlie well-being across the lifespan. In this preregistered, cross-sectional study, we propose a conceptual model of language markers of well-being and use written narratives about healthy aging (N = 701) and computerized text analysis (LIWC) to empirically validate the model. As hypothesized, we identified a model with three groups of language markers (reflecting affective, evaluative, and social processes). Initial validation with established self-report scales (N = 30 subscales) showed that these language markers reliably predict core components of well-being and underlying processes. Our results support the concurrent validity of the conceptual language model and allude to the added benefits of language-based measures, which are thought to reflect less conscious processes of well-being. Future research is needed to continue validating language markers of well-being across the lifespan in a theoretically informed and contextualized way, which will lay the foundation for inferring people’s well-being from their natural language use.

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a global threat to nearly every society around the world. Individuals turned to their political leaders to safely guide them through this crisis. The most direct way political leaders communicated with their citizens was through official speeches and press conferences. In this report, we compare psychological language markers of four different heads of state during the early stage of the pandemic. Specifically, we collected all pandemic-related speeches and press conferences delivered by political leaders in the USA (Trump), UK (Johnson), Germany (Merkel), and Switzerland (Swiss Federal Council) between February 27th and August 31st, 2020. We used natural language analysis to examine language markers of expressed positive and negative emotions, references to the community (we-talk), analytical thinking, and authenticity and compare these language markers across the four nations. Level differences in the language markers between the leaders can be detected: Trump’s language was characterized by a high expression of positive emotion, Merkel’s by a strong communal focus, and Johnson’s and the Swiss Federal Council by a high level of analytical thinking. Overall, these findings mirror different strategies used by political leaders to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of us experience loss and decline as we age. It might seem plausible that our mental health would follow a similar downward trajectory. Yet, for many individuals, this does not seem to be the case. One prominent view in the emotional aging literature is that increases in emotion regulation capacities account for this well-being or mental health paradox in late life. This will be the focus of the present chapter. Our aim is to shed light on the nuance and complexity of how emotion regulation changes across adulthood. Following a brief overview of theories and key concepts, we will review empirical studies of how emotion regulation changes across the adult life span, discuss links between emotion regulation and mental health (with a focus on depression and anxiety), present an example study, and highlight directions for future research.

•BPD is associated with actively using a diverse range of words for negative emotion.•The association between BPD and negative emotion word use is insensitive to context.•These findings likely reflect extensive experience with negative emotion.•Extensive but inflexible attention to negative emotion may drive dysfunction in BPD.

Abstract Close relationships represent an important context for aging. Romantic partners can provide important resources for day-to-day individual and relational functioning by regulating their emotions together. Emotional co-regulation attempts are, however, not always successful and may depend on situational factors such as psychological availability, i.e., an individual’s current ability to be open and attentive to their partner’s needs. The present study examined emotional co-regulation in the daily lives of younger (N=62; 18-33 years) and older (N=56; 57-87 years) couples, focusing on the particular role of psychological availability. In a 21-day experience-sampling study, both participating partners reported their momentary emotional experiences, perceived psychological availability, relationship quality and (co)-regulation strategies three times a day. Results from dyadic multilevel modeling revealed that older and younger participants did not differ in the strategies they used to regulate their own and their partners emotions, but older couples showed greater emotional synchrony (i.e., coordinated changes between partners’ emotional experiences) throughout the study. When partners experienced greater psychological availability, they used more adaptive (e.g., positive humor, responsive touch) and fewer maladaptive (e.g., ruminative brooding) emotion regulation strategies. They also experienced more positive emotions and greater relationship quality when they were more psychologically available, and these associations were particularly evident among younger couples. The findings suggest that older partners were more attuned to each other’s emotions, but that their co-regulation depended less on psychological availability. This potentially speaks to more automatic co-regulation among older couples and opens the door for further investigations of situational factors that impact successful co-regulation.

Abstract During the Covid-19 pandemic, the global public has relied on their political leaders to guide them through the crisis. The current study investigated if and how political leader’s rhetoric would be associated with collective emotional responses. We used text analytical methods to investigate association between political leader speech and daily aggregates of expressed emotions on Twitter. We collected posts concerning Covid-19 and all speeches by the highest executive power from the USA, UK, Germany, and Switzerland. We applied cross-lagged time series analyses. Political leaders whose communication was more analytic and communal corresponded to increased positivity on Twitter. Collective communal focus, in turn, increased after speeches which were more analytic and negative. Processes of socio-affective dynamics between political leaders and the general public are apparent. Our findings demonstrate that political leaders who present public crises competently and with a sense of community are associated with more positive responses on Twitter.

Putting feelings into words is often thought to be beneficial. Few studies, however, have examined associations between natural emotion word use and cardiovascular reactivity. This laboratory-based study examined emotion word use (i.e., from computerized text analysis) and cardiovascular reactivity (i.e., interbeat interval changes from baseline) across two interaction contexts (i.e., conflict and positive conversations) in 49 mixed-sex married couples (age: M = 43.11, SD = 9.20) from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. We focused on both frequency (i.e., relative proportion of emotion words) and diversity (i.e., relative proportion of unique emotion words) of emotion words. Data were collected between 2015 and 2017 and analyzed treating both partners and conversations as repeated measures, resulting in 196 observations overall (four per dyad). Findings showed that (1) when spouses used more negative emotion words (especially anger), they showed higher cardiovascular reactivity. This finding was robust when controlling for covariates; generalized across gender, interaction contexts, and socioeconomic status. Moreover, (2) when spouses used a more diverse negative emotion vocabulary, they showed higher cardiovascular reactivity, but this was not robust when controlling for negative emotion word frequency. Associations between (3) positive emotion word use and cardiovascular reactivity were not statistically significant. Verbalizing negative emotions thus seems to go along with higher cardiovascular reactivity, at least in the short term. Replication is needed across other relationship types, genders, and sexual orientations. These findings highlight emotion word use as an indicator of cardiovascular reactivity, which has implications for the identification of potential health risks that emerge during marital interactions.

Abstract Cardiovascular reactivity in midlife may predict health problems in later life, but few studies have examined cardiovascular reactivity during marital interactions, as an important interpersonal context, and potentially modifiable linguistic correlates. This laboratory-based study examined emotion word use (i.e., positive and negative emotion words derived using automated language analysis) and cardiovascular reactivity (i.e., heart rate changes from baseline) across two marital interaction contexts (i.e., positive and conflict conversation) in 46 married couples (92 individuals; age: M = 42.6, SD = 8.5). Results showed that (1) spouses who used more negative emotion words during conflict showed higher cardiovascular reactivity. Moreover, (2) when husbands used a more diverse negative emotion word vocabulary during positive conversations, their wives showed higher cardiovascular reactivity and (3) when wives used a more diverse positive emotion vocabulary, their husbands showed lower cardiovascular reactivity. Findings highlight the relevance of couples’ emotion word use for cardiovascular reactivity in midlife.

Abstract Objectives Studies have shown age differences in adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic. The processes explaining these age differences remain unclear. Intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation play an important role in psycho-social adjustment and develop across the lifespan. This study investigated whether differences in COVID-19-related adjustment disorder symptoms can be explained by age-differences in rumination in a multi-national sample. Furthermore, linguistic indicators of ruminative processing were examined with reference to age. Methods N = 1401 participants (from USA, UK, Switzerland, Germany, aged 18–88) completed an online survey and a writing task. Measures included brooding, co-brooding, adjustment disorder symptoms, and language indicators of negative self- and communal-focus . Results Older participants reported less adjustment disorder symptoms which was mediated by less (co-)brooding. Participants reporting more (co-)brooding wrote about COVID-19 more negatively. While in younger adults more self-focus was associated with higher ruminative brooding, in older adults it was associated with less brooding. Conclusion These findings contribute to a better understanding of regulatory mechanisms that help explain age differences in mental health. They warrant further research considering age-related differences, as our results suggest not only more adaptive emotion regulation as resilience factor in older individuals but also different qualities of self-focus while processing stressful events.

Abstract Affection is a positive emotion that plays an important role in intimate relationships. In a laboratory-based dyadic study of 52 middle-aged married couples (104 individuals) from highly diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, we examined spouses’ subjective experience of affection across different marital interaction contexts, correlates, and specificity. Results showed that (1) wives and husbands experienced lower affection in a conflict conversation compared to a positive conversation. Moreover, (2) for wives, higher affection in the conflict conversation was associated with lower physiological reactivity (i.e., less heart rate acceleration from baseline to conflict discussion). For wives, higher affection was also associated with higher marital satisfaction for themselves and their husbands. These findings were specific to affection and did not robustly emerge for other positive emotions. These findings support views of affection as a positive, context-sensitive emotion that may become particularly important in intimate relationship conflict. Directions for future research are discussed.

Romantic relationships are hotbeds of emotions - from the high highs and low lows in the beginning of a new relationship to all the tough and tender moments when navigating life as a couple to the question of how to let go and move on when a relationship ends. How couples regulate emotions has profound consequences, not only for relationship quality and stability, but also for well-being, health, and longevity (e.g., Gottman & Gottman, 2017; Levenson et al., 2014; Wells et al., 2022).Drawing from functionalist perspectives of emotion (e.g., Levenson, 1999), we propose that each phase in a romantic relationship (i.e., initiation, development, ending) can be characterized by specific challenges and opportunities that give rise to specific emotions and with it, demands for emotion regulation. We do not wish to imply that these challenges and opportunities are universal (although there is evidence that romantic love is a cross-cultural phenomenon, see Jankowiak & Fischer, 1992) or that everyone will navigate these stages in similar ways (in fact, variability is key when it comes to couples’ emotion regulation; Levenson et al., 2014). But we hope for this to be a useful organizing framework that can bridge the vast affective and relationship science literatures that speak to couples’ emotion regulation.