Age,Era,and Life Perspective: Emotional Connotations of the 1920's through the 1980's to Individuals in their Twenties through their Eighties

The affective meaning of seven decades (1920's to 1980's) to seven adult age groups (twenties to eighties) was examined. Measures of Pleasure, Excitement, Arousal, and Distress were obtained for each decade from each age group. The results showed, as one might expect, that decades vary in emotional character, but, more importantly, that the emotional character of individual decades sometimes differs significantly as a function of age. Older age groups view the century as more pleasurable and less distressing than do younger age groups. These variations in the emotional image of the twentieth century are discussed as one indicator of life perspective and as a possible source of intergenerational conflict.