Międzypokoleniowa nieadekwatność obrazu reakcji emocjonalnej jako potencjalne źródło nieporozumień

A discrepancy between emotional reactions of old people and their depiction may be noticed in literature. Stereotypically, old age connotes worse functioning and negative feelings. On the other side many studies suggest that negative affect may decrease with age. In the study the part of emotional knowledge of two generations was compared. 66 young adults and 61 old people complet- ed a questionnaire in which they estimated the probability of emotional experiences in described situ- ations. The estimation was made three times and related to (1) the subject, (2) the subject's generation, (3) the opposite (younger or older) generation. Results show that old people perceive their own negative emotions as being more likely than young adults perceive their own feelings. Younger people perceived old people's emotional reactions correctly but the older group underestimated the probability of the other group's emotions, which potentially may be the reason of intergenerational misunderstandings.