Memories of a Grandparent’s Death: Preparation for Future Losses

Abstract Experiences of death in early life may result in identity-defining memories that last a lifetime. Autobiographical memories serve psychosocial functions, acting as guides for future behavior. Understanding early death experiences may thus inform lifelong personal views about death, dying, and bereavement. We queried 50 adults (ages 19 – 67 years) using a structured set of questions to recall and write about their earliest and most significant losses. The narratives were qualitatively analyzed using the constant comparative method associated with grounded theory. Results indicated a grandparent’s death was the most frequently reported significant loss, reflecting the value of intergenerational relationships and the long-lasting impact of grandparent death. Themes also emerged concerning participants’ reports of the benefits of actively remembering and reflecting on loss, as well as learning from others’ losses, which further deepened their views of death. These findings highlight how early memories of death, including one's grandparents, can have lifelong impact.

2; N = 49). How adaptively individuals remember their personal past appears linked to the experience of grief, sometimes even years after the loss.

REMEMBERING THE DYING DAYS: OLDER ADULTS' FINAL MEMORIES FROM THE LOSS OF A SPOUSE
Emily Mroz, and Susan Bluck, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States Memories from the very end of the life of a deceased spouse (i.e., their dying days) are frequently carried with the bereaved as major markers in their own life stories. The current study identifies functions of these memories. Older adults (age 70-96; N = 53) told two memories from their spouse's dying days, then self-rated them for serving directive, social-bonding and self-continuity functions (TALE;Bluck & Alea, 2011). Those who found their loss more incomprehensible (ISLES; Holland, 2015) reported using these memories for directive (i.e., guidance of behaviors) and selfcontinuity (i.e., maintenance of a sense of self) functions more frequently (ps < 0.05). This relation was, however, mediated by older adults' current grief (ICG;Prigerson et al., 1995). Incomprehensibility of the loss of a spouse appears to lead to intense grieving, prompting individuals to draw on memories from the loss to maintain a sense of self and direct their future. Yao Fu, and Ellen Idler, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States In this mixed-methods study of religious/cultural beliefs and end-of-life treatment preferences in China, we surveyed 1,085 mainland Chinese people aged 18 or above online. We assessed the effects of past experience with dying people they have known and their own end-of-life treatment preferences in two hypothetical terminal illness vignettes. We found that respondents who knew or visited someone at the end of their lives were somewhat less likely to choose aggressive treatment for themselves in a lung cancer scenario (25% compared to 33%, p=.013). However, there was less difference in an Alzheimer's disease scenario, with a choice to use a gastric feeding tube or not (39% compared to 42%, p=.262). Openended responses indicate that people refer to these past experiences as a reference in making end-of-life decisions for themselves. This study provides empirical evidence that autobiographical memory has a directive function that individuals call on to inform future behaviors. Experiences of death in early life may result in identitydefining memories that last a lifetime. Autobiographical memories serve psychosocial functions, acting as guides for future behavior. Understanding early death experiences may thus inform lifelong personal views about death, dying, and bereavement. We queried 50 adults (ages 19 -67 years) using a structured set of questions to recall and write about their earliest and most significant losses. The narratives were qualitatively analyzed using the constant comparative method associated with grounded theory. Results indicated a grandparent's death was the most frequently reported significant loss, reflecting the value of intergenerational relationships and the long-lasting impact of grandparent death. Themes also emerged concerning participants' reports of the benefits of actively remembering and reflecting on loss, as well as learning from others' losses, which further deepened their views of death. These findings highlight how early memories of death, including one's grandparents, can have lifelong impact.

MICRO-AND MACRO-LEVEL TIME ASSOCIATIONS: HOW DAILY LIFE SETTLES INTO LONGER-TERM PROFILES
Chair: Raquael Joiner Co-Chair: Niccole Nelson Discussant: Stacey Scott Over a decade ago, Ram and Gerstorf (2009) proposed a descriptive framework to unite the study of intraindividual variability, operating at the micro-level timescale (e.g., minutes, days), and intraindividual change, operating at the macro-level time scale (e.g., years, decades). Since this proposal, several aging theories have incorporated a micro-level time component in their conceptualizations of longer-term aging processes. Furthermore, technological advancements have eased difficulties associated with data-collection at micro-level timescales, leading to an upsurgence of empirical investigations of dynamic characteristics and dynamic processes. This session presents theoretical, quantitative, and qualitative research aimed at better understanding the associations between micro-and macro-level time. More specifically, 1) Nelson et al. present their novel theoretical framework linking micro-level time emotion regulatory processes to intraindividual trajectories of cognitive functioning, 2) Joiner and colleagues present a quantitative study assessing the association between daily emotion-dynamics and yearly trajectories of depressive symptomatology, 3) Bergeman et al. present a quantitative study of daily risk and resilience in relation to trajectories of health and well-being, and 4) Bouklas and colleagues present a qualitative study linking individuals' daily routines and behaviors to their general life outlooks. The quantitative and qualitative studies are based on available data from the The Notre Dame Study of Health & Well-Being, a 10-year, nested-longitudinal study that incorporates yearly questionnaires, five 56-day measurement bursts, and interview data. Discussant Stacey Scott will synthesize the presentations with Ram and Gerstorf's framework and encourage researchers to integrate shorter-and longer-term timescales into their theoretical and empirical work on aging. Recent conceptualizations of depression and supporting empirical work suggests that elevations and allievations of depressive symptoms can be understood from a dynamic systems perspective. Specifically, depression is proposed to result from strong-feedback loops in a system comprised of highly interdependent component parts (e.g., affect states). Supporting this perspective, individual differences in emotional interia and strong connections across emotions at micro-level timescales have been consistently associated with individual differences in depressive symptomatology such that individuals with greater emotional inertia and crossemotion relations show higher levels of depressive symptoms. Importantly, however, individual differences do not necessarily translate to intraindividual change. The present study explores whether emotional connectivity at the daily timescale differs within individuals across a ten-year span and how these associations relate to intraindividual changes in depressive symptomatology. The results of these individuallevel analyses will help further a dynamic systems perspective of depression and help inform clinical interventions for depression.

COGNITIVE ENRICHMENT THROUGH EMOTION REGULATION: A MODEL OF SUCCESSFUL COGNITIVE AGING
Niccole Nelson, Cindy Bergeman, and Nathan Rose,

University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, United States
Cognitive Enrichment Through Emotion Regulation (CENTER) is a theoretical framework of development that emphasizes the role of individuals finding their proverbial "centers" in shaping their cognitive aging trajectories. Within the CENTER framework, dynamic interactions between emotion regulatory processes that occur in real time (i.e., micro-level time), and global psychological well-being that develops over several years (i.e., macro-level time), aid in the optimization of cognitive aging. Indeed, by successfully regulating emotional reactions to stress in real time, which is supported by global psychological well-being, individuals will minimize their accumulation of allostatic load across the lifespan. Such minimization of allostatic load is key to optimizing cognitive aging through emotion regulation under the CENTER framework. CENTER will be motivated by fusing research on cognitive aging, emotion regulation, stress-and-coping, allostatic load, and psychological well-being. To characterize the stress regulation system, we use a reservoir to reflect how much stress an individual "holds" over time. Factors affecting what is contained in a stress reservoir are incoming stress (Input), accumulation/dissipation (Strdiss), and actions taken to discharge stress (e.g., Control). At the within person level, time-varying control predicts better Strdiss (β= -0.03±0.01, p <.001), even when controlling for between