Is old age typically a time of despair and loneliness?
A. Again, research on these questions produces results that are likely to be surprising to most young people who are afraid of growing old and view old age as a sad and lonely time. But the evidence from my own research and that of other psychologists shows that quite the opposite is true, especially if those older individuals are free of life-threatening or highly debilitating illness. In fact, the evidence suggests that older people are less lonely than college aged adults and they experience fewer negative emotions like sadness and anger on a day-to-day basis. Older people do, of course, experience losses and other problems that challenge their well-being. But they appear to be better equipped than younger people to cope with those challenges in a way that allows them to maintain a generally positive frame of mind.
