BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: No emotion-induction procedure is clearly recommended to assess the emotional reactivity in the elderly. This study aimed to validate an emotional reactivity procedure in healthy old patients.
Methods: Nineteen healthy elders (age range: 66-91 years old) were compared with 19 education- and sex-matched young adults (age range: 20-33 years old) using a cross-sectional design. The main outcome measure was the evaluation of emotional reactivity to commercial film excerpts used as stimuli (joy, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, or neutral state) according to Philippot's procedure and using a 5-point questionnaire assessing 10 emotion dimensions (Differential Emotions Scale, DES).
Results: In the elderly sample, targeted emotions of fear, disgust, anger, and sadness were significantly induced compared with the baseline status. The global emotional reactivity to each film showed that the elderly subjects rated the DES in the same manner as the young adults, but with significantly higher global intensity for the excerpts inducing fear, anger, disgust, and sadness.
Conclusion: The Philippot procedure is accurate for studying emotional reactivity in healthy elderly. The simplicity and rapidity of this procedure makes it suitable for emotion studies in different elderly populations.