Age Related Positivity Effect On Children - 1765 Words

Age Related Positivity Effect What is age related positivity effect? Is it a hearty personality that fosters this age related positivity effect? Does the wisdom of life, and the many lessons, tears and triumphs, teach some individuals the skills needed to obtain this positivity effect as they age? Andrew Reed and Laura Carstensen completed a research paper entitled; The theory behind the age-related positivity effect, published in frontiers in psychology, September 27, 2012 (Reed Carstensen, 2012). In this study age related â€Å"positivity effect† is defined the trend wherein age-related individuals favor the positive over the negative when processing cognitively (Reed Carstensen, 2012). The older individuals recall and react to†¦show more content†¦My hypothesis suggests that the largest impact on age related positivity effect is an individual that encountered more challenges throughout their lives. When individuals work for their successes, overcome obstacles and learn to cope with adversity, they have an opportunity to learn invaluable lessons of perseverance. Aware of attention restoration theory (ART) that theorizes cognitively, individuals naturally are stimulated by either negative or positive stimuli (Berman, Jonides, Kaplan, 2008). ART is based on research, examining the separation of attention into two fundamental areas: involuntary attention, where ones’ attention is drawn to their natural positive or negative stimuli (Berman, Jonides, Kaplan, 2008). The secondary occurs when your attention is captured by something intriguing to your personal sensibilities, some stimuli that challenges your natural cognitive thought pattern (Berman, Jonides, Kaplan, 2008). Therefore, theorizing individuals that encounter few adversities within the first one third of their lives, lack the opportunity to learn challenging coping skills, thus, leaving these individuals with a personal deficit when forced to endure hardships and calamitie s in the later stages of their lives (Berman, Jonides, Kaplan, 2008). Once again, these factors have the possibility of influencing cognitive