This proposal responds to PAR-03-056 Objective 22, Racial/Ethnic Differences and Health Disparities and Objective 24, Improved Measures and Methodologies. Most people say they want to feel good. What they actually do to feel good, however, varies tremendously. This may be because people differ in what specific feelings they value. While some people value positive feelings that involve intense physiological activation, such as excitement and elation, others value positive feelings that involve minimal physiological activation, such as calmness and peacefulness. Variation in affect valuation, or the affective states that people value and would like to feel, may account for differences in behaviors that have important consequences for long term health and well-being. The proposed study examines affect valuation across the life span in Chinese Americans (CA) and European Americans (EA). In our previous studies of college students, we developed a reliable and valid measure of affect valuation (the Affect Valuation Index, AVI), found cultural variation in affect valuation, and observed links between affect valuation and behavior. In the proposed study, we examine whether these findings generalize to EA and CA between the ages of 20-95. Participants will first complete a survey of their average affective states (experienced and valued), personality traits, cultural orientations, physical activities, and social partners. A subset of participants will then participate in a 5-day experience sampling study, in which they will be paged at 5 random times over the course of the day and asked to complete a questionnaire about their experienced and valued affect, their activities, and their social partners at the moment they are paged. The study aims to: (1) establish the reliability and validity of the AVI for use with different age groups, (2) examine whether previous findings regarding cultural variation in affect valuation and the links between affect valuation and behavior generalize across the life span, (3) test hypotheses regarding age-related changes in affect valuation across cultural groups, (4) examine whether previous findings based on global ratings of affect generalize to momentary ratings of affect, and (5) provide an empirical foundation for future studies that will examine affect valuation and its links to health and well being across the life span. ? ?
