Ute Kunzmann
Biographic Data
| ID | 209472 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ute Kunzmann |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ute |
| FAMILY NAME | Kunzmann |
| SIGNATURE | KUNZMANN U |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leipzig University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0943-7845 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 23 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation
Dealing with feelings in adolescence
Adolescence is a period of heightened exposure to both unpleasant and pleasant events, requiring effective emotion regulation. Cognitive reappraisal is particularly beneficial, yet research has typically examined its role either in unpleasant or in pleasant situations, rarely considering both simultaneously within individuals. In this 28-day daily diary study, we investigated whether cognitive reappraisal in unpleasant and pleasant events each un…
Calmness and excitement intensity and variability in old age
The discrete emotion theory of affective aging posits that the adaptive effects of emotions vary depending on their ability to facilitate effective responses to developmental constraints and opportunities. Research suggests that calmness and excitement are two positive emotions with distinct functions and that calmness, but not excitement, supports effective adjustment to developmental constraints in old age, particularly when control perceptions…
Speaking about flexibility
Building on prominent theories of emotional aging (Carstensen, 2006; Charles & Luong, 2013), this study investigated age differences in the variability and situational sensitivity of emotion regulation strategies. We hypothesized that, older, as compared to younger, adults would demonstrate greater temporal variability in their use of emotion regulation strategies and adapt them more flexibly to the perceived controllability of daily stressors. O…
Barriers to comforting
ObjectiveThis study examines how attachment orientations are associated with emotional reactivity (i.e., emotional experience and expression) during couples' comforting conversations, as well as age-related differences in these associations.BackgroundEffective emotional support during times of need is essential for maintaining intimate relationships. While it is well documented that attachment anxiety and avoidance significantly challenge partner…
Neuroticism, emotional stress reactivity and recovery in daily life
Emotional stressor reactivity and recovery from stressors are associated with the personality trait neuroticism. We examined whether higher extraversion or openness might buffer these associations in daily life. Participants from two age-heterogeneous samples (lifespan: n = 364, aged 14–88 years; late adulthood: n = 170, aged 66–89 years) answered personality questionnaires and reported their momentary negative affect (NA) and stressors six times…
Three facets of emotion regulation in old and very old age
The ability to regulate emotions in stressful situations is an important building block for high well-being across the lifespan. Yet, very little is known about how old and very old adults regulate their emotions. In this study, 123 young old adults ( M age = 67.18, SD = 0.94) and 47 very old adults ( M age = 86.70, SD = 1.46) were prompted 6 times a day for 7 consecutive days to report both their stressors and 10 emotion regulation strategies. O…
Responses to social inequality across the life span
Economic inequality has been consistently rising in recent decades in many Western countries including Germany. This is a pressing issue as greater economic inequality within a society has detrimental consequences for well-being, social stability, productivity, and even life expectancy. However, little is known about how individuals of different ages experience and respond to social inequality across adulthood. Because status differences are perc…
Discrete negative emotions and goal disengagement in older adulthood
This study examined whether sadness, but not anger, could facilitate adaptive goal disengagement capacity in the context of older adult's stress-related experiences. To this end, we investigated whether the within-person effects of sadness and anger on older adults' goal disengagement capacity were moderated by stress perceptions and diurnal cortisol levels. In addition, we tested whether an association between sadness and goal disengagement capa…
Emotion regulation in old and very old age
Prominent life span theories have suggested that the ability to downregulate negative emotions remains stable or even increases well into old age. However, past evidence for continued growth during old age is mixed. In this laboratory study, 130 young old individuals ( M age = 66.72 years, SD = 1.03, range = 65 to 69 years, 48% female) and 59 very old individuals ( M age = 86.03 years, SD = 1.44, range = 83 to 89 years, 58% female) watched negati…
Anger regulation choice—The role of age and habitual reappraisal
The ability to choose emotion regulation strategies in accordance to contextual demands, known as emotion regulation flexibility, is key to healthy adaptation. While recent investigations on spontaneous emotion regulation choice tested the effects of emotional intensity and age using standardized negative pictures with no particular emotional quality, we elicited the discrete emotion of anger with personally relevant autobiographical memories in …
Love and Imitation
Overall, the results suggest that facial mimicry is a social process that becomes less prevalent and might differ in their function as individuals age
The Age-Dependent Association Between Vascular Risk Factors and Depressed Mood
Our findings suggest that VRF burden in midlife, but less so in later life, predicts individual differences in depressed mood. These findings are consistent with reports on the importance of midlife VRFs and support the idea that promotion of vascular health in this age group or earlier in life may be critical to maintain mental health across adulthood
Terminal change across facets of affective experience and domain satisfaction
General well-being is known to deteriorate sharply at the end of life. However, it is an open question how rates of terminal change differ across affective and evaluative facets of well-being and if individual difference correlates operate in facet-specific ways. We examined how discrete affective states (happy, angry, fearful, sad) and satisfaction with key life domains (health, leisure, family) change as people approach death and how difference…
Theory of mind and wisdom
How does perspective-taking develop over the lifespan? This question has been investigated in two separate research traditions, dealing with theory of mind (ToM) and wisdom, respectively. Operating in almost complete isolation from each other, and using rather different conceptual approaches, these two traditions have produced seemingly contradictory results: While perspective-taking has been consistently found to decline in old age in ToM resear…
Value Relativism and Perspective Taking are Two Distinct Facets of Wisdom-Related Knowledge
This study provides evidence for the idea that value relativism and perspective taking are two distinct facets of wisdom-related knowledge. Implications for future age-comparative research interested in wisdom are discussed
Stability and change in affective experience across the adult life span
Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a national sample spanning the adult life span, age differences in anger and sadness were explored. The cross-sectional and longitudinal findings consistently suggest that the frequency of anger increases during young adulthood, but then shows a steady decrease until old age. By contrast, the frequency of sadness remains stable over most of adulthood and begins to increase in old age. In addition, …
Age Differences in Wisdom-Related Knowledge
This study provides evidence for the idea that age differences in wise reasoning about fundamental life issues depend on the relevance of age-normative problems in individuals' own lives. This suggests that any phase of life offers opportunities for the attainment of wisdom-related strengths as long as an individual is willing and able to actively engage in life's ongoing challenges
Age Differences in Emotion Recognition
The present findings suggest that age differences in emotion recognition are context and emotion specific. Together, the evidence speaks for substantial plasticity in emotion recognition (i.e., within-person variability) well into old age
Differential Age Trajectories of Positive and Negative Affect
In cross-sectional and longitudinal samples from the Berlin Aging Study, fellow researchers and I examined performance-based and self-evaluative indicators of functioning in two realms as predictors of individual differences and intraindividual changes in positive and negative affect. Cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models suggested that performance-based indicators (level of social involvement and test intelligence) were ass…
The Two Faces of Wisdom
There are several legitimate ways of conceptualizing and studying wisdom. One is largely informed by Western philosophy and treats wisdom as an analytic theory of expert knowledge, judgment, and advice about difficult and uncertain matters of life. Another is more consistent with Asian philosophical non-secularized traditions and treats wisdom as instantiated by wise persons or their products. The second approach is always but an approximation to…
Perceiving Control
Although control beliefs are thought to be pivotal contributors to emotional well-being in old age, questions remain about the specific and long-term emotional implications of different types of control beliefs. We examined three generalized beliefs about control (personal control over desirable outcomes, personal responsibility for undesirable outcomes, perceived others' control) and their associations with emotional well-being (positive and neg…
Is age-related stability of subjective well-being a paradox? Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from the Berlin Aging Study.
Subjective well-being is thought to remain relatively stable into old age despite health-related losses. Age and functional health constraints were examined as predictors of individual differences and intraindividual change in subjective well-being, as indicated by positive and negative affect, using cross-sectional (N = 516) and longitudinal (N = 203) samples from the Berlin Aging Study (age range 70-103 years). In cross-sectional and longitudin…
Perceiving Control
Although control beliefs are thought to be pivotal contributors to emotional well-being in old age, questions remain about the specific and long-term emotional implications of different types of control beliefs. We examined three generalized beliefs about control (personal control over desirable outcomes, personal responsibility for undesirable outcomes, perceived others' control) and their associations with emotional well-being (positive and neg…
Differential Age Trajectories of Positive and Negative Affect
In cross-sectional and longitudinal samples from the Berlin Aging Study, fellow researchers and I examined performance-based and self-evaluative indicators of functioning in two realms as predictors of individual differences and intraindividual changes in positive and negative affect. Cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models suggested that performance-based indicators (level of social involvement and test intelligence) were ass…
Age Differences in Emotion Recognition
The present findings suggest that age differences in emotion recognition are context and emotion specific. Together, the evidence speaks for substantial plasticity in emotion recognition (i.e., within-person variability) well into old age
Terminal change across facets of affective experience and domain satisfaction
General well-being is known to deteriorate sharply at the end of life. However, it is an open question how rates of terminal change differ across affective and evaluative facets of well-being and if individual difference correlates operate in facet-specific ways. We examined how discrete affective states (happy, angry, fearful, sad) and satisfaction with key life domains (health, leisure, family) change as people approach death and how difference…
Theory of mind and wisdom
How does perspective-taking develop over the lifespan? This question has been investigated in two separate research traditions, dealing with theory of mind (ToM) and wisdom, respectively. Operating in almost complete isolation from each other, and using rather different conceptual approaches, these two traditions have produced seemingly contradictory results: While perspective-taking has been consistently found to decline in old age in ToM resear…
Age Differences in Wisdom-Related Knowledge
This study provides evidence for the idea that age differences in wise reasoning about fundamental life issues depend on the relevance of age-normative problems in individuals' own lives. This suggests that any phase of life offers opportunities for the attainment of wisdom-related strengths as long as an individual is willing and able to actively engage in life's ongoing challenges
Love and Imitation
Overall, the results suggest that facial mimicry is a social process that becomes less prevalent and might differ in their function as individuals age
Value Relativism and Perspective Taking are Two Distinct Facets of Wisdom-Related Knowledge
This study provides evidence for the idea that value relativism and perspective taking are two distinct facets of wisdom-related knowledge. Implications for future age-comparative research interested in wisdom are discussed
Is age-related stability of subjective well-being a paradox? Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from the Berlin Aging Study.
Subjective well-being is thought to remain relatively stable into old age despite health-related losses. Age and functional health constraints were examined as predictors of individual differences and intraindividual change in subjective well-being, as indicated by positive and negative affect, using cross-sectional (N = 516) and longitudinal (N = 203) samples from the Berlin Aging Study (age range 70-103 years). In cross-sectional and longitudin…
Perceiving Control
Although control beliefs are thought to be pivotal contributors to emotional well-being in old age, questions remain about the specific and long-term emotional implications of different types of control beliefs. We examined three generalized beliefs about control (personal control over desirable outcomes, personal responsibility for undesirable outcomes, perceived others' control) and their associations with emotional well-being (positive and neg…
The Two Faces of Wisdom
There are several legitimate ways of conceptualizing and studying wisdom. One is largely informed by Western philosophy and treats wisdom as an analytic theory of expert knowledge, judgment, and advice about difficult and uncertain matters of life. Another is more consistent with Asian philosophical non-secularized traditions and treats wisdom as instantiated by wise persons or their products. The second approach is always but an approximation to…
Differential Age Trajectories of Positive and Negative Affect
In cross-sectional and longitudinal samples from the Berlin Aging Study, fellow researchers and I examined performance-based and self-evaluative indicators of functioning in two realms as predictors of individual differences and intraindividual changes in positive and negative affect. Cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models suggested that performance-based indicators (level of social involvement and test intelligence) were ass…
Age Differences in Emotion Recognition
The present findings suggest that age differences in emotion recognition are context and emotion specific. Together, the evidence speaks for substantial plasticity in emotion recognition (i.e., within-person variability) well into old age
Stability and change in affective experience across the adult life span
Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a national sample spanning the adult life span, age differences in anger and sadness were explored. The cross-sectional and longitudinal findings consistently suggest that the frequency of anger increases during young adulthood, but then shows a steady decrease until old age. By contrast, the frequency of sadness remains stable over most of adulthood and begins to increase in old age. In addition, …
Age Differences in Wisdom-Related Knowledge
This study provides evidence for the idea that age differences in wise reasoning about fundamental life issues depend on the relevance of age-normative problems in individuals' own lives. This suggests that any phase of life offers opportunities for the attainment of wisdom-related strengths as long as an individual is willing and able to actively engage in life's ongoing challenges
Value Relativism and Perspective Taking are Two Distinct Facets of Wisdom-Related Knowledge
This study provides evidence for the idea that value relativism and perspective taking are two distinct facets of wisdom-related knowledge. Implications for future age-comparative research interested in wisdom are discussed
Terminal change across facets of affective experience and domain satisfaction
General well-being is known to deteriorate sharply at the end of life. However, it is an open question how rates of terminal change differ across affective and evaluative facets of well-being and if individual difference correlates operate in facet-specific ways. We examined how discrete affective states (happy, angry, fearful, sad) and satisfaction with key life domains (health, leisure, family) change as people approach death and how difference…
Theory of mind and wisdom
How does perspective-taking develop over the lifespan? This question has been investigated in two separate research traditions, dealing with theory of mind (ToM) and wisdom, respectively. Operating in almost complete isolation from each other, and using rather different conceptual approaches, these two traditions have produced seemingly contradictory results: While perspective-taking has been consistently found to decline in old age in ToM resear…
Anger regulation choice—The role of age and habitual reappraisal
The ability to choose emotion regulation strategies in accordance to contextual demands, known as emotion regulation flexibility, is key to healthy adaptation. While recent investigations on spontaneous emotion regulation choice tested the effects of emotional intensity and age using standardized negative pictures with no particular emotional quality, we elicited the discrete emotion of anger with personally relevant autobiographical memories in …
Love and Imitation
Overall, the results suggest that facial mimicry is a social process that becomes less prevalent and might differ in their function as individuals age
The Age-Dependent Association Between Vascular Risk Factors and Depressed Mood
Our findings suggest that VRF burden in midlife, but less so in later life, predicts individual differences in depressed mood. These findings are consistent with reports on the importance of midlife VRFs and support the idea that promotion of vascular health in this age group or earlier in life may be critical to maintain mental health across adulthood
Responses to social inequality across the life span
Economic inequality has been consistently rising in recent decades in many Western countries including Germany. This is a pressing issue as greater economic inequality within a society has detrimental consequences for well-being, social stability, productivity, and even life expectancy. However, little is known about how individuals of different ages experience and respond to social inequality across adulthood. Because status differences are perc…
Discrete negative emotions and goal disengagement in older adulthood
This study examined whether sadness, but not anger, could facilitate adaptive goal disengagement capacity in the context of older adult's stress-related experiences. To this end, we investigated whether the within-person effects of sadness and anger on older adults' goal disengagement capacity were moderated by stress perceptions and diurnal cortisol levels. In addition, we tested whether an association between sadness and goal disengagement capa…
Emotion regulation in old and very old age
Prominent life span theories have suggested that the ability to downregulate negative emotions remains stable or even increases well into old age. However, past evidence for continued growth during old age is mixed. In this laboratory study, 130 young old individuals ( M age = 66.72 years, SD = 1.03, range = 65 to 69 years, 48% female) and 59 very old individuals ( M age = 86.03 years, SD = 1.44, range = 83 to 89 years, 58% female) watched negati…
Three facets of emotion regulation in old and very old age
The ability to regulate emotions in stressful situations is an important building block for high well-being across the lifespan. Yet, very little is known about how old and very old adults regulate their emotions. In this study, 123 young old adults ( M age = 67.18, SD = 0.94) and 47 very old adults ( M age = 86.70, SD = 1.46) were prompted 6 times a day for 7 consecutive days to report both their stressors and 10 emotion regulation strategies. O…
Neuroticism, emotional stress reactivity and recovery in daily life
Emotional stressor reactivity and recovery from stressors are associated with the personality trait neuroticism. We examined whether higher extraversion or openness might buffer these associations in daily life. Participants from two age-heterogeneous samples (lifespan: n = 364, aged 14–88 years; late adulthood: n = 170, aged 66–89 years) answered personality questionnaires and reported their momentary negative affect (NA) and stressors six times…
Calmness and excitement intensity and variability in old age
The discrete emotion theory of affective aging posits that the adaptive effects of emotions vary depending on their ability to facilitate effective responses to developmental constraints and opportunities. Research suggests that calmness and excitement are two positive emotions with distinct functions and that calmness, but not excitement, supports effective adjustment to developmental constraints in old age, particularly when control perceptions…
Speaking about flexibility
Building on prominent theories of emotional aging (Carstensen, 2006; Charles & Luong, 2013), this study investigated age differences in the variability and situational sensitivity of emotion regulation strategies. We hypothesized that, older, as compared to younger, adults would demonstrate greater temporal variability in their use of emotion regulation strategies and adapt them more flexibly to the perceived controllability of daily stressors. O…
Barriers to comforting
ObjectiveThis study examines how attachment orientations are associated with emotional reactivity (i.e., emotional experience and expression) during couples' comforting conversations, as well as age-related differences in these associations.BackgroundEffective emotional support during times of need is essential for maintaining intimate relationships. While it is well documented that attachment anxiety and avoidance significantly challenge partner…
Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation
Dealing with feelings in adolescence
Adolescence is a period of heightened exposure to both unpleasant and pleasant events, requiring effective emotion regulation. Cognitive reappraisal is particularly beneficial, yet research has typically examined its role either in unpleasant or in pleasant situations, rarely considering both simultaneously within individuals. In this 28-day daily diary study, we investigated whether cognitive reappraisal in unpleasant and pleasant events each un…
Psychology (20 works) · Aging and Gerontology Research (17 works) · Developmental psychology (17 works) · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (9 works) · Cognition (8 works) · Health disparities and outcomes (8 works) · Medicine (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Clinical Psychology (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works)