Retirement and Sexual Satisfaction.

Background And Objectives: Although interest in sexuality in older age has increased over the last decades, few studies have focused on longitudinal change in sexual satisfaction around retirement age. In the present study, we studied change in sexual satisfaction across retirement in a sample of Swedish older adults with a partner.

Research Design And Methods: Our analyses were based on n = 759 participants (359 male, 400 female) from the longitudinal Health, Aging, and Retirement Transitions in Sweden study.

Money matters (especially if you are good at math): Numeracy, verbal intelligence, education, and income in satisfaction judgments.

Objective numeracy, the ability to understand and use mathematical concepts, has been related to superior decisions and life outcomes. Unknown is whether it relates to greater satisfaction in life. We investigated numeracy's relations with income satisfaction and overall life satisfaction in a diverse sample of 5,525 American adults.

Autonomy and loneliness - longitudinal within- and between-person associations among Swedish older adults.

Objectives: Loneliness is an important risk factor for mental and physical health over the life span. Little is known about psychosocial predictors and consequences of loneliness apart from social network characteristics. One important factor that may both prevent from, but also be affected by loneliness, is perceived autonomy.

Ability-related political polarization in the COVID-19 pandemic.

In two large-scale longitudinal datasets (combined  = 5761), we investigated ability-related political polarization in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. We observed more polarization with greater ability in emotional responses, risk perceptions, and product-purchase intentions across five waves of data collection with a diverse, convenience sample from February 2020 through July 2020 (Study 1,  = 1267). Specifically, more liberal participants had more negative emotional responses and greater risk perceptions of COVID-19 than conservative participants.

Dehumanization During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Communities often unite during a crisis, though some cope by ascribing blame or stigmas to those who might be linked to distressing life events. In a preregistered two-wave survey, we evaluated the dehumanization of Asians and Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our first wave (March 26-April 2, 2020; = 917) revealed dehumanization was prevalent, between 6.

Helping out or helping yourself? Volunteering and life satisfaction across the retirement transition.

It has been suggested that volunteering leads to increases in well-being, particularly in older and retiring adults, and that volunteering could be used as a public health intervention to increase well-being. However, the causal relationship has been questioned. We investigated the association between voluntary work and life satisfaction in a bivariate dual-change score model, using 4 years of longitudinal data from 1,123 participants from the Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study.

Up and About: Older Adults' Well-being During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Swedish Longitudinal Study.

Objectives: To investigate early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic related to (a) levels of worry, risk perception, and social distancing; (b) longitudinal effects on well-being; and (c) effects of worry, risk perception, and social distancing on well-being.

Methods: We analyzed annual changes in four aspects of well-being over 5 years (2015-2020): life satisfaction, financial satisfaction, self-rated health, and loneliness in a subsample (n = 1,071, aged 65-71) from a larger survey of Swedish older adults. The 2020 wave, collected March 26-April 2, included measures of worry, risk perception, and social distancing in response to COVID-19.

Towards an active and happy retirement? Changes in leisure activity and depressive symptoms during the retirement transition.

Retirement is a major life transition in the second half of life, and it can be associated with changes in leisure activity engagement. Although theories of retirement adjustment have emphasized the need to find meaningful activities in retirement, little is known about the nature of changes in leisure activity during the retirement transition and their association with mental health. Based on four annual waves of the 'Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden' study, we investigated the longitudinal association of leisure activity engagement and depressive symptoms using bivariate dual change score models.

Measuring Counterintuitiveness in Supernatural Agent Dream Imagery.

The present article tests counterintuitiveness theory and methodology in relation to religious dream imagery using data on religious dream content. The endeavor adopts a "fractionated" or "piecemeal" approach where supernatural agent (SA) cognition is held to be a pivotal building block of purportedly religious dreaming. Such supernaturalistic conceptualizations manifest in a cognitive environment of dream simulation processes, threat detection, and violation of basic conceptual categorization characterized by counterintuitiveness.

Psychological Health in the Retirement Transition: Rationale and First Findings in the HEalth, Ageing and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) Study.

From an aging research and life-course perspective, the transition to retirement marks a significant life-event and provides a unique opportunity to study psychological health and coping during a period of substantial change in everyday life. The aim of the present paper is to: (a) outline the rationale of the HEalth, Ageing and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study, (b) describe the study sample, and (c) to present some initial results from the two first waves regarding the association between retirement status and psychological health. The HEARTS study is designed to annually study psychological health in the years before and following retirement, and to examine change and stability patterns related to the retirement event.

Greater Emotional Gain from Giving in Older Adults: Age-Related Positivity Bias in Charitable Giving.

Older adults have been shown to avoid negative and prefer positive information to a higher extent than younger adults. This positivity bias influences their information processing as well as decision-making. We investigate age-related positivity bias in charitable giving in two studies.

Regulation of experienced and anticipated regret in daily decision making.

Decisions were sampled from 108 participants during 8 days using a web-based diary method. Each day participants rated experienced regret for a decision made, as well as forecasted regret for a decision to be made. Participants also indicated to what extent they used different strategies to prevent or regulate regret.

How to estimate how well people estimate: evaluating measures of individual differences in the approximate number system.

At a glance, one can tell that there are more individual fruits in a pile of 100 apples than in a pile of 20 watermelons, even though the watermelons take up more space. People's ability to distinguish between such nonsymbolic numerical magnitudes without counting is derived from the approximate number system (ANS). Individual differences in this ability (ANS acuity) are emerging as an important predictor in research areas ranging from children's understanding of arithmetic to adults' use of numbers in judgment and decision making.

Happiness and arousal: framing happiness as arousing results in lower happiness ratings for older adults.

Older adults have been shown to describe their happiness as lower in arousal when compared to younger adults. In addition, older adults prefer low arousal positive emotions over high arousal positive emotions in their daily lives. We experimentally investigated whether or not changing a few words in the description of happiness could influence a person's rating of their happiness.

Multiple numeric competencies: When a number is not just a number.

A growing body of evidence demonstrates the practical and theoretical importance of numeracy in evaluations and choices involving numeric information, an importance that goes beyond simple accuracy in performing mathematical computations. Numeric competency, however, may be multiply determined, but little research has examined potentially separable influences in evaluations and choice. In the present article, we describe 3 numeric competencies and begin to disentangle their effects.