<h3>Deconstructing your question</h3>

<ul>
<li>There is a difference between the ability to experience an emotion and tendency to experience an emotion.</li>
<li>There is a difference between proportion of time that an individual experiences an emotion and the intensity of that emotion.</li>
<li>Obviously, you could take many approaches to answering this question. Emotions can be viewed from various perspectives including physiological, psychological, and behavioural.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Some empirical evidence</h3>

<p>I did a quick search on Google Scholar for <a href="http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&amp;q=panas+longitudinal+study&amp;btnG=Search&amp;as_sdt=0%2C5&amp;as_ylo=&amp;as_vis=0">'panas longitudinal study'</a> </p>

<p>PANAS (see Crawford and Henry 2004, 
<a href="http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~psy086/dept/pdfs/BJCP_2004_PANAS.pdf">PDF</a> for a a review) is a commonly used self-report questionnaire that aims to measure the frequency with which various positive and negative emotions have been experienced over a given time frame.</p>

<p>I found this interesting article by<a href="http://www.agencylab.ku.edu/~agencylab/manuscripts/%28Kunzmann,%20Little%20and%20Smith%202000%29.pdf"> Kunzmann, Little, and Smith 2000, PDF</a> called
"Is age-related stability of subjective well-being a paradox? Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from the Berlin Aging Study".</p>

<p>The opening section of the article reviews the empirical literature regarding stability and age related trends in self-reported positive and negative affect.
The following are a few interesting points from the article:</p>

<ul>
<li>Costa et al. 1987 found correlations over 10 years for positive and negative affect of r =.42 and r=.43 respectively. I.e., there is fair amount of stability in individual differences in the experience of emotions.</li>
<li>When Kunzmann et al's review of the literature they cite several large scale studies that showed at the group-level no age effect on negative affect, although a couple of studies suggested their might be a small decline in negative affect with age. These studies varied in the years of life that were of interest, but typically looked at differences between early, middle and older adulthood.</li>
<li>Kunzmann et al also review the evidence for positive affect. The story sounds a little complicated with some studies suggesting a decline in positive affect and others not.</li>
<li>As I've seen before, it seems like cross sectional studies sometimes show bigger effects than longitudinal studies.</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-23T00:42:19.357Z
2012-01-23T02:14:15.103Z
2012-01-23T02:14:15.103Z
Jeromy Anglim
<p>I'm specifically interested in whether or not their <em>maximum</em> ability to feel an emotion decreases as they grow older (so by that I'm meaning - let's ignore the effects of tolerance induced by life experience for now).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-22T02:35:14.827Z
Could you elaborate a bit on what you mean by ability to feel an emotion and how you think this question could be answered in an empirical way?
Jeromy Anglim
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-22T07:00:08.503Z
Okay. By ability to feel emotion: I mean emotions like anger, happiness, and sadness.

By how we can answer this empirically - this is sort of hard to answer. Hm - I'll ask this here: http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/124/how-does-someone-measure-the-intensity-of-emotion-like-happiness-sadness-anger
InquilineKea
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-23T00:46:15.230Z
I understand you mean emotions like anger, etc. But what do you mean by "ability to feel"? Also, is there a particular age range that you are thinking about e.g., childhood? teenagers? or younger adult versus older adult?
Jeromy Anglim
<neuroscience><aging><emotion>
Do people feel emotions less strongly as they grow older?
InquilineKea
# Do people feel emotions less strongly as they grow older?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-01-19)

I'm specifically interested in whether or not their *maximum* ability to feel an emotion decreases as they grow older (so by that I'm meaning - let's ignore the effects of tolerance induced by life experience for now).

**Tags:** neuroscience, aging, emotion

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Could you elaborate a bit on what you mean by ability to feel an emotion and how you think this question could be answered in an empirical way?  
> **username_0**: Okay. By ability to feel emotion: I mean emotions like anger, happiness, and sadness.  By how we can answer this empirically - this is sort of hard to answer. Hm - I'll ask this here: http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/124/how-does-someone-measure-the-intensity-of-emotion-like-happiness-sadness-anger  
> **username_1**: I understand you mean emotions like anger, etc. But what do you mean by "ability to feel"? Also, is there a particular age range that you are thinking about e.g., childhood? teenagers? or younger adult versus older adult?  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2012-01-23. Score: 8

### Deconstructing your question

* There is a difference between the ability to experience an emotion and tendency to experience an emotion.
* There is a difference between proportion of time that an individual experiences an emotion and the intensity of that emotion.
* Obviously, you could take many approaches to answering this question. Emotions can be viewed from various perspectives including physiological, psychological, and behavioural.

### Some empirical evidence

I did a quick search on Google Scholar for ['panas longitudinal study'](http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&q=panas+longitudinal+study&btnG=Search&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=&as_vis=0)

PANAS (see Crawford and Henry 2004,
[PDF](http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~psy086/dept/pdfs/BJCP_2004_PANAS.pdf) for a a review) is a commonly used self-report questionnaire that aims to measure the frequency with which various positive and negative emotions have been experienced over a given time frame.

I found this interesting article by [Kunzmann, Little, and Smith 2000, PDF](http://www.agencylab.ku.edu/~agencylab/manuscripts/%28Kunzmann,%20Little%20and%20Smith%202000%29.pdf) called
"Is age-related stability of subjective well-being a paradox? Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from the Berlin Aging Study".

The opening section of the article reviews the empirical literature regarding stability and age related trends in self-reported positive and negative affect.
The following are a few interesting points from the article:

* Costa et al. 1987 found correlations over 10 years for positive and negative affect of r =.42 and r=.43 respectively. I.e., there is fair amount of stability in individual differences in the experience of emotions.
* When Kunzmann et al's review of the literature they cite several large scale studies that showed at the group-level no age effect on negative affect, although a couple of studies suggested their might be a small decline in negative affect with age. These studies varied in the years of life that were of interest, but typically looked at differences between early, middle and older adulthood.
* Kunzmann et al also review the evidence for positive affect. The story sounds a little complicated with some studies suggesting a decline in positive affect and others not.
* As I've seen before, it seems like cross sectional studies sometimes show bigger effects than longitudinal studies.


---

