TruthBook Religious News Blog

By Richard Griffin/Growing Older
Mon May 19, 2008

Happiness, it turns out, increases with age.
At least, that’s what a new study has found. Older people are happier than any other age group.

And the main reason why this holds true? According to what Professor Yang Yang, the study’s leading researcher, has told Reuters News Service, it’s largely due to an increase in self-esteem.

She also found that “happiness in later life is closely related to early-life conditions and formative experiences.”

You may have your doubts, but the study looks solid. It comes from the University of Chicago and is based on surveys of Americans conducted over a 30-year period.

The researchers interviewed between 1,500 and 3,000 people each year. So the findings do not rest on a slim sample.

That it began three decades ago suggests that happiness has been a subject of interest for a lot longer than one might have thought. I had considered it something of a fad that sprouted only recently.

For the past few years, it has been of serious interest to social scientists, part of the so-called Positive Psychology movement.

Defining happiness, however, turns out to be difficult.
Tal Ben-Shahar, who teaches a course about happiness to packed rows of Harvard undergrads, sees it as a combination of pleasure and meaning. For him, you need both to make you happy.

In his delightful book “Stumbling on Happiness,” another Harvard psychologist, Daniel Gilbert, writes: “The you-know-what-I-mean feeling is what people ordinarily mean by happiness.”

He then shows in detail how the subject is a lot more complicated than this definition (and this column) might lead you to believe.

The findings of the Chicago researchers run counter to received opinion. Left to themselves, most Americans might have classified old people as basically unhappy. Don’t they have to put up with a lot more grief than young people?

Though not myself a researcher, I judge these findings consistent with experience of many of my age peers. An oft-repeated sentiment that one hears from people from 30 on up: I wouldn’t ever want to go through my 20s again.

(Incidentally, that is not a sentiment I exactly share. I would welcome another shot at it. Of course, this time I would get it right.)

In my more rational moments, however, I do relate to the findings of the survey. My happiness quotient has indeed increased, and I now claim higher marks than previously.

For fear this be mere grade inflation, however, let me qualify this claim. Almost surely, my current happiness will undergo serious tests and resulting ups and downs. I fully expect things to go wrong.

But that belongs to the uncharted future. The present looks quite good to me, despite the ongoing chagrin I harbor over many events. The damage the neo-cons have done to this country, for example. And the grief I feel for the people of Burma/Myanmar, of China, and those living in other parts of this troubled world.

Like many others among my age peers, I got off to a good start with happiness. One of the first things I read as a child came in Sunday school from a little book full of questions and answers.

The second question asked why God made me.
And the answer, if I may here abridge the words a bit, told me it was for me to be happy.

Of course, the slings and arrows of actual living tend to weaken our hold on happiness. Life surprises us with unexpected blows that move us off course. The deaths of dear ones, for example, make happiness sometimes feel remote.

But, even then, self-esteem continues to promote happiness. That means openness to loving and being loved. And that loving begins with loving yourself and being ready to forgive and be patient with yourself.

As suggested above, I think that spirituality promotes happiness. Among human goods, having an interior life rich in spirit surely deserves a high rank.

Among other ingredients for happiness, one of the most important is being at peace with others. It astonishes me how many people are at odds with their relatives or former friends and associates.

It is hard to imagine anyone being happy without a sense of humor. Unless you can laugh at certain human predicaments, you will almost surely become unhappy.

Closely related to a sense of humor is a sense of perspective. If every little happening can upset you, how in the world can you stay even reasonably happy?

Do something for other people. Almost by itself, I have found, being willing to reach out to others will promote happiness. Even if you are largely incapacitated, a word or gesture directed toward another person has the potential to make you feel better.

Finally, writing makes me feel happy. You may not feel the same way about this activity but to make something — a sweater, a bookshelf, a garden — can prove a powerful source of happiness.

Richard Griffin of Cambridge is a regularly featured columnist in Community Newspaper Company publications. He can be reached by e-mail at rbgriff180@aol.com or by calling 617-661-0710.

Labels: Americans, God, happiness, humor, meaning, Richard Griffin, self-esteem, spirituality, survey, Yang Yang