News and SocietyPhilosophy

Why do teenagers are happy in the 21st century, and adults are disappointed?

What, it would seem, can be more banal than a call to enjoy the carefree years of childhood and adolescence? It has long been known that young people, not burdened with cares, live happier than mature people. And yet, this maxim was also questioned for some time, when it became clear that in the first decade of the millennium, the present satisfaction was experienced by thirty-year-olds, but among the teenagers this feeling was less widespread. And now, finally, the pendulum of happiness again swung towards the young.

30 is wonderful. But…

So, until 2010, teenagers felt insecure. Indeed, in fact, it seemed that youth is not the best time of life. Life experience is not enough, and this means having many problems and dangers about which nothing is known. "By exchanging" the fourth decade, a person usually achieved something in life and was at that beautiful age, when he still can, but already knows a lot, which allows him to bypass many pitfalls, purposefully striving to achieve success. The financial situation also plays an important role, because good money is paid to a specialist, and it becomes impossible for them immediately, they need years of study plus time to get practical experience. In general, 30 years is an excellent age for both men and women. So it was thought until around 2010. But modern research refutes this assertion. Their results are published in the American scientific journal Social Psychological and Personality Science by Ellison P. Davis.

Large-scale survey

The staff of the Department of Social Psychology of the University of San Diego, California, recently conducted a large-scale study, whose purpose was to determine the level of happiness among young people and people of the generation "for thirty." Usually such jobs consist of interviewing a relatively small number of respondents, most often students themselves, for the simple reason that it is much easier to do this. This time, psychologists started a serious matter and approached the issue in large scale. A total of 1.27 million adolescents and more than 50,000 adults in a wide age range of 18 to 96 years were interviewed by a team of researchers led by Gene Twenge. The results obtained after data processing surprised scientists.

To blame for everything?

As it turned out, the optimism of people aged "thirty with something" is at a fairly low level. The researchers had a chance to understand the causes of this unfortunate phenomenon that arose in the last five years. Jean Twenge has been reflecting for years about why mature people, who sometimes achieve good results in life, are haunted by gloomy thoughts. She even wrote a book called "Generation I", and the results of the large-scale poll partly confirmed her assumptions. In her work, the researcher uses the term "excessive youthful optimism". What is it? This feeling of a certain frustration, that is, a discrepancy with the expectations of the real results of one's own activity. People just became a bit different from what they wanted to become in childhood and adolescence. So, the expectation of a merry New Year's holiday is brighter than a party that seemed suddenly boring.

In Europe and the USA

In this respect, the results of a study conducted in 2006 in Europe are interesting. In particular, the Danes, who are considered to be residents of a very prosperous country, have expressed rather low expectations for the coming year as a result of the survey, while the data showed that Italy and Greece, occupying the lowest places in terms of satisfaction with life, showed a high level of hope.

Some empirical evidence has been revealed that people who overcame today's thirty-year line really hoped in their youth to achieve much more than the adolescents of past generations. Twenge also refers to the results of a nationwide survey of high school students, which she and her colleagues also attached to the database being processed.

Compared with the seventies

The expectations of young people at the beginning of the century increased significantly, in some cases, twice, over the past forty years. For example, in the 1970s, less than half of senior high school students thought they would hold senior positions when they reached the age of thirty. Today, 64% of them are now. In this respect inequality is an important factor of dissatisfaction. When a person is young, he does not know how his career will develop. He is only going to do it, but according to the law of averages, most people can not become bosses.

Personal life

In addition to income and career, Americans also expect more from their marriages, "says Eli Finkel, a psychologist from Northwestern University. If in previous times the spouse helped to satisfy the simplest needs (plowing fields or simply earning money), now many expect from the husband or wife support in achieving high self-esteem, self-expression and personal growth. More and more marriages arise because of the desire for these high standards. The collapse of hopes leads to disappointment. And then there is the crisis of middle age, which, as is known, is causing the collapse of many families ...

Disaster management

What to do? If you imagine a hypothetical opportunity to return to the past and talk to yourself, what would this thirty-year-old man say to this young creature? Some people are of the opinion that it would be better not to set high goals. But this is not an option. What for at once to limit the desires and to refuse dream? Maybe it's still necessary to set high goals? The only caveat - one should be realistic. Strange dreams can lead to disappointment, which was discovered by Gene Twenge as a result of his research.

But her co-author Sonya Lubomirski proposed a simple and effective way of managing frustration. It seems banal, but many wise thoughts look like this until they are implemented in practice. Lubomirski's research revealed an underestimated power of gratitude "for what you have." The employee believes the growing expectations are particularly destructive. Having received a good post, the employee already dreams of a more prestigious chair. Having met an excellent guy, the girl thinks that he is too small. And so on. Psychologists and sociologists even came up with the term "hedonistic treadmill". But happiness is not at all in this ...

Similar articles

 

 

 

 

Trending Now

 

 

 

 

Newest

Copyright © 2018 en.birmiss.com. Theme powered by WordPress.