Getting Older Leads
to Emotional Stability, Happiness, Says Stanford Study
Are
American senior citizens who say they're happy simply part of an era
that predisposed them to good cheer? Or do most people whether born
and raised in boom times or busts have it within themselves to reach
their golden years with a smile?
By Adam Gorlick,
Stanford
"As people get
older, they're more aware of mortality," researcher Laura
Carstensen said. "So when they see or experience moments of
wonderful things, that often comes with the realization that
life is fragile and will come to an end. But that's a good
thing. It's a signal of strong emotional health and balance."
Oct. 28, 2010 -
It's a prediction often met with worry: In 20 years, there will be more
Americans over 60 than under 15. Some fear that will mean an aging
society with an increasing number of decrepit, impaired people and fewer
youngsters to care for them while also keeping the country's
productivity going.
The concerns are
valid, but a new Stanford study shows there's a silver lining to the
graying of our nation. As we grow older, we tend to become more
emotionally stable. And that translates into longer, more productive
lives that offer more benefits than problems, said Laura Carstensen, the
study's lead author.
"As people age,
they're more emotionally balanced and better able to solve highly
emotional problems," said Carstensen, a psychology professor and
director of the Stanford Center on Longevity.
"We may be
seeing a larger group of people who can get along with a greater number
of people. They care more and are more compassionate about problems, and
that may lead to a more stable world."
Vibration
therapy lacks cardiovascular benefit of exercise
for senior citizens, but it can improve muscle strength and weight loss
- See video in story on how it works
Between 1993 and
2005, Carstensen and her colleagues tracked about 180 Americans between
the ages of 18 and 94. Over the years, some participants died and
others aged out of the younger groups, so additional participants were
included.
For one week
every five years, the study participants carried pagers and were
required to immediately respond to a series of questions whenever the
devices buzzed. The periodic quizzes were intended to chart how happy,
satisfied and comfortable they were at any given time.
Carstensen's
study which was published online Monday in the journal Psychology and
Aging was coauthored by postdoctoral fellows Bulent Turan and Susanne
Scheibe as well as Stanford doctoral students and researchers at
Pennsylvania State, Northwestern, the University of Virginia and the
University of California's campuses in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
While previous
research has established a correlation between aging and happiness,
Carstensen's study is the first to track the same people over a long
period of time to examine how they changed.
Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor and
director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, is the study's
lead author. Photo L.A. Cicero
The undertaking
was an effort to answer questions asked over and over again by social
scientists: Are seniors today who say they're happy simply part of a
socioeconomic era that predisposed them to good cheer?
Or do most people
whether born and reared in boom times or busts have it within
themselves to reach their golden years with a smile? The answer has
important implications for future aging societies.
"Our findings
suggest that it doesn't matter when you were born," Carstensen said. "In
general, people get happier as they get older."
Over the years,
the older subjects reported having fewer negative emotions and more
positive ones compared with their younger days. But even with the good
outweighing the bad, older people were inclined to report a mix of
positive and negative emotions more often than younger test subjects.
"As people get
older, they're more aware of mortality," Carstensen said.
"So when they
see or experience moments of wonderful things, that often comes with the
realization that life is fragile and will come to an end. But that's a
good thing. It's a signal of strong emotional health and balance."
Carstensen (who
is 56 and says she's happier now than she was a few decades ago)
attributes the change in older people to her theory of "socio-emotional
selectivity" a scientific way of saying that people invest in what's
most important to them when time is limited.
While teenagers
and young adults experience more frustration, anxiety and disappointment
over things like test scores, career goals and finding a soul mate,
older people typically have made their peace with life's accomplishments
and failures. In other words, they have less ambiguity to stress about.
"This all
suggests that as our society is aging, we will have a greater resource,"
Carstensen said. "If people become more even-keeled as they age, older
societies could be wiser and kinder societies."
So what, then,
do we make of the "grumpy old man" stereotype?
"Most of the
grumpy old men out there are grumpy young men who grew old," Carstensen
said. "Aging isn't going to turn someone grumpy into someone who's
happy-go-lucky. But most people will gradually feel better as they grow
older."
