After a certain point in life, we learn to let go of disappointing realities, and focus more on what will keep us happy and content. According to a recently published article, more research should be directed towards understanding the facts and reasons behind a happier old age, as compared to the assumed possibilities.
The authors of this article worked with a team of researchers who have concluded that older people tend to focus on happier things and remember the negative ones less. This result was drawn after observing that when these members of this group are shown pictures of faces, they concentrate more on the positive ones rather than on the gloomy ones.
“When we try to use those cognitive processes to predict change of mood, they don’t always do so. Sometimes looking at positive pictures doesn’t make people feel better,†explained psychologist Derek M. Isaacowitz of Northeastern University who worked on the article with late Fredda Blanchard-Fields of Georgia Institute of Technology.
Other investigations have also explained that the population belonging to this age bracket also indulges in personal choices which keep their moods uplifted, like keeping away from a social circle that might prove depressing. However, the authors suggest that a consistent and established link between the strategies, phenomena, and these positive changes of mood is not seen yet. Thus, there is a need for more rigorous research in this arena to understand the patterns in a better and more reliable manner.
This article is titled Perspectives on Psychological Science and has been published in a journal brought out by the Association for Psychological Science.