Recent research into how emotions change with age may be able to help people lead healthier and longer lives and bring about new treatments for depression in the elderly.

人的情绪随着年龄增长会发生怎样的变化？该领域近期的一些研究成果有助于让人们活得更健康，更长寿，并为老年抑郁症带来新的治疗手段。

Like people's bodies, emotions change over time. Older people for the most part have far fewer negative feelings, such as worry and stress, than do younger people, studies show.

人的身体会随着时间推移而发生变化，情绪也是一样。研究表明，在大多数情况下，老年人的负面情绪（如忧虑和压力等）要比年轻人少得多。

The elderly learn to disentangle themselves from feelings of negativity and seem to focus more on present situations that bring pleasure, rather than on the future, researchers say. They also tend to process negative information less deeply than positive information.

老年人已学会将自己从负面情绪的桎梏中解脱出来，更关注那些能带来当下乐趣的东西，而非虚无缥缈的未来。他们在处理负面信息时，往往也不那么钻牛角尖。

By contrast, positive feelings such as enjoyment and happiness change very little from the time a person is in his youth until old age.

与此形成对比的是，从青年时期直到老年，人们对于愉悦和享受等正面情绪的态度几乎不会随着时间推移而发生变化。

'It seems to be essential for our emotional well-being¹ to not look back in anger and to focus on the positive when we are older,' Stefanie Brassen, a researcher at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, said in an email.

汉堡-埃彭多夫大学医疗中心(University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf)的研究人员斯特芬妮•布拉森(Stefanie Brassen)在电邮中写道，“随着年龄的增长，不要纠缠于过去不愉快的事，而更多关注积极正面的东西，这对于一个人的情绪健康是至关重要的。”

Older people who are depressed² seem not to use the sort of emotional regulation typically seen in the elderly, researchers say. Depression affects some six million Americans over the age of 65, or about 15% of the total, and is believed to be a big reason why the elderly have the highest suicide rate, according to the nonprofit Geriatric Mental Health Foundation.

研究人员表示，患有抑郁症的老年人似乎缺乏该人群普遍具有的情绪控制能力。据非盈利组织“老年心理健康基金会”(Geriatric Mental Health Foundation)的统计数据，在65岁以上的美国人中，有600万人左右受到抑郁症的影响，占比约为15%；抑郁症也被视为老年人自杀率最高的很大一个原因。

In a potential new treatment approach, Dr. Brassen and colleagues are developing a training program in which older people practice strategies to better adapt to life circumstances. The goal is to get patients to 'focus on what they have reached in life, on the resources and abilities they still have and on positive experiences they can plan in the near future,' says Dr. Brassen.

布拉森博士及其同事正在研究一种治疗抑郁症的新方法，通过一个培训项目来锻炼老年人适应生活环境的能力，布拉森博士说，目的是让病人“关注自己在生活中已经达成的目标、拥有的资源、依然具备的能力以及积极正面的生活经历，从而更好地规划未来。”

Still, focusing on the positive or what feels good also can create problems, such as impairing³ decision-making and making older people more vulnerable to scam artists. There are times when one wants to focus on the negative and think through what someone is telling you rather than reacting to how a person makes you feel, says Laura Carstensen, a psychology⁴ professor at Stanford University and director of its Center on Longevity⁵ in California.

不过，凡事往好处想或追求令人愉悦的东西也会带来一些问题，如决策能力的降低和导致老年人容易上当受骗等。加州斯坦福大学(Stanford University)心理学教授及斯坦福大学长寿研究中心(Center on Longevity)主任罗拉•卡斯滕森(Laura Carstensen)说，有时候，人们需要思考一些负面的东西，仔细考虑别人对你说的话，而不是根据对别人的喜恶程度来简单行事。

In one study, some 340,000 people ranging in age from 18 to 85 were surveyed by phone and asked how much they had felt emotions like happiness, stress and anger the day before. Between about the ages of 20 and 60, people experienced an increasingly greater ratio of positive to negative emotions, says Arthur Stone, a professor of psychiatry⁶ and behavioral science at Stony⁷ Brook⁸ University in New York, who led a study.

有一项研究对18到85岁的34万人进行了电话采访，询问他们在前一天是否经历了喜悦、压力和愤怒情绪。领导该项研究的纽约石溪大学(Stony Brook University)精神病学及行为学教授阿瑟•斯通(Arthur Stone)说，在20岁左右到60岁左右的区间，随着年龄增长，受访者体会到的正面情绪比负面情绪逐步增多。

While reported feelings of happiness were generally similar across the decades, 'we saw a drop off in the amount of stress and worry as they get older,' Dr. Stone says. The work was published in the Proceedings⁹ of the National Academy of Sciences in 2010.

虽然各年龄段在喜悦情绪上的占比相差无几，但斯通博士说，“我们发现，年纪越大，人们的压力和忧虑情绪就越少。”该研究报告2010年发表于《美国国家科学院学报》(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)。

How people approach life emotionally is driven by changes in their life goals, says Stanford's Dr. Carstensen. Younger people often need to explore or take risks to achieve longer-range goals, and they experience stress and frustration¹⁰ in the meantime. Older people, by contrast, perceive their time horizons as shorter and focus on more immediate¹¹ goals that elicit¹² positive emotions, like being with their grandchildren, she says.

斯坦福的卡斯滕森博士说，人们对待生活的态度和情绪受到人生目标改变的影响。年轻人追求长远的生活目标，往往需要不断摸索或承担风险，此过程中会有压力和挫败感。老年人则认为人生苦短，更关注能够激发正面情绪的短期目标，比如陪自己的孙子孙女享受天伦之乐等。

'As we focus on those [shorter-term] goals, people's lives get better,' she says. In a study published last year, Dr. Carstensen and colleagues found that people who developed a higher ratio of positive to negative feelings as they aged were more likely to live longer. The study, published in Psychology and Aging, followed nearly 200 adults over 10 years.

卡斯滕森博士说，“当人们把注意力放在那些（短期）目标上，活得就会更好。”在一项研究中，她和同事发现，正面情绪比负面情绪多的老年人更有可能长寿。该研究在十年中跟踪了近200名成年人，研究报告于2011年发表在《心理学与衰老》杂志(Psychology and Aging)上。

Healthy elderly people appear to employ coping strategies that help lessen¹³ the experience of negative emotion, says Dr. Brassen the German researcher.

布拉森博士表示，健康的老年人会有一种随遇而安的心态，从而减少负面情绪的产生。

She and colleagues ran an experiment to see how young and old people respond to feelings of regret. Interestingly, a third group -- elderly people diagnosed with depression -- responded to regret in ways that more closely resembled the younger group, rather than their similarly aged peers. The study was published in May in the journal Science.

她和同事进行了一项试验，观察年轻人和老年人是如何应对悔恨情绪的。有意思的是，由患有抑郁症的老年人构成的第三组在对待悔恨情绪时与年轻人的那组更相似，而与年龄相仿的另一个老年组不同。该研究报告发表在2012年5月的《科学》杂志(Science)上。

In the experiment, Dr. Brassen engaged 21 healthy young people, 20 healthy older people and 20 depressed elderly in a game of chance. Players had to choose whether to keep on going in the game for the opportunity to win more points. But if they lost in a subsequent round, they would lose all their points.

在试验中，布拉森博士让21名健康的年轻人、20名健康的老年人和20名患有抑郁症的老年人参加一个博彩游戏。参与者必须决定是否在游戏中继续下去，以赢得更高的奖项，如果下一轮输掉，就会失去之前所有的积分。

When any of the participants lost, they would get agitated¹⁴ physiologically¹⁵, including changes in blood flow patterns in a part of the brain that processes regret, Dr. Brassen says. But the younger participants and the depressed elderly also exhibited behavioral signs of regret. They made poorer decisions in subsequent rounds by taking more risk, which didn't make sense logically because the game depended purely¹⁶ on luck, not strategy.

布拉森博士说，每一个参与者输掉游戏时，都会在生理上出现激动生气的迹象，处理悔恨情绪的脑部区域血流量模式也会发生变化。年轻人组和患有抑郁症的老年人组都呈现出后悔的情绪，在下一轮游戏中甘愿冒更大的风险，而这是不理智的行为，会做出糟糕的决策，因为这个游戏完全靠的是运气，而非谋略。

By contrast, the elderly group that was healthy appeared to be able to engage in reasoning that distanced themselves from feelings of regret, Dr. Brassen says.

布拉森博士说，与此相反的是，健康的老年人组能做出理智的判断，把自己从悔恨中解脱出来。

For example, some of these players concluded there was no cause to blame themselves for losing in what was a game of luck. 'Healthy elderly were actually aware that they could have gained more [game points] but they seemed to be able to disengage from this thought/feeling,' Dr. Brassen says.

举例而言，有些健康的老年人做出结论，认为在这种全凭运气的游戏中输掉没什么大不了，不必自怨自艾。布拉森博士说，“这组老年人其实知道，冒险的话可能会得到更多积分，但还是抵抗住了这种想法和情绪。”

With practice, researchers say, older people can learn to spend less time dwelling¹⁷ on things they cannot change, leading to healthier emotional aging. 'Maybe [it's] not always the best strategy to stay young as long as you can but to accept and adapt to limitations in late life,' says Dr. Brassen.

研究人员表示，通过不断练习，老年人可以学会少去想那些自己无力改变的事情，从而使情绪更为健康。布拉森博士说，“也许永葆青春并不是最理想的状态，做一个乐天知命的老人也不错。”

Golden Oldies

情绪如何随着年龄增长而变化

Researchers are trying to understand how emotions change with age, which could provide clues to helping¹⁸ people live longer and healthier lives.

研究人员正在试图了解人的情绪是如何随着年龄增长而发生变化的，从而提供一些线索，帮助人们活得更健康，更长寿。

Stress peaks in the early 20s for most people, and is sharply higher in women than in men, but then steadily¹⁹ declines through old age.

对大多数人来说，20出头时是压力最大的年龄段，而且女性比男性更突出，然后压力随着年龄增长而稳步下降。

Feelings of enjoyment and happiness are highest among young adults, gradually decline in midlife, then rise again in later years.

年轻人的欢乐情绪最多，迈入中年后逐步减少，到老年又开始回升。

People tend to worry the most in midlife, from about age 40 to the early 50s, after which feelings of worry decrease.

中年人的忧虑情绪最多，从40岁左右一直到50岁出头，然后开始减少。

Anger is at its peak in early adulthood²⁰ but then begins a long, gradual decline.

成年早期的愤怒情绪最多，然后开始一个漫长的下降过程。

Sadness stays relatively²¹ constant throughout life, although women experience more sad feelings than men.

哀伤情绪贯穿于生命的整个阶段，女性的哀伤情绪比男性更多。