Emotion and Age: Changes and New Strengths

Bob Levenson, Professor, Department of Psychology
Thursday, April 16, 2020, 2:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Hosted at Belmont Village Albany

1100 San Pablo Ave, Albany, CA 94706
This program has been postponed.

There has been an explosion of new knowledge and theory in recent years about emotion in late life. In this talk, I will discuss areas of emotional functioning that are preserved with age and those that change (including areas of decline and improvement). The presentation draws heavily from studies of emotional functioning in individuals and couples at different stages of the lifespan conducted in our laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

Robert W. Levenson received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in clinical psychology. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California—Berkeley where he is a member of the Clinical Science, Developmental, and Social/Personality programs. He has directed the Institute for Personality and Social Research, the Clinical Science Program, and the Bay Area Predoctoral Training Program in Affective Science. His research program studies human emotion, focusing on the organization of physiological, behavioral and subjective systems; the ways that these systems are impacted by normal aging and neuropathology; and the role that emotions play in the maintenance and disruption of committed relationships. His research has been supported by NIMH and NIA (including a MERIT award from NIA). He is past President of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, past President of the Association for Psychological Science (APS), past-President of the Society for Affective Science, and current President of the Board of Directors of the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System.  He received the inaugural Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement from APS in 2013, the William James award for Lifetime Achievement in Basic Research from APS in 2014, and the Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Psychophysiology from the Society for Psychophysiological Research in 2015. In 2018 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.