Page 31 - Pat Brown (1)

A guide for family, friends and loved ones in

preparing for the effects of the growing elder
population …a Public Service from “Those Who

Care”

Q: Do We Get Happier With Age? intelligence "degrades much faster as people age," which during a
A: If I've heard it once, I've heard a thousand times, "Getting younger adult's life span is important, especially as it relates to his/
her ability to work. Yet, as we age and we begin to slow down at
old is terrible: my body is falling apart, I can't remember anything work, we have less need to be as "sharp" which goes hand-in-hand
anymore, I need reading glasses, and everything is just harder to with older adults refocusing on developing stronger relationships.
do." Well, that may be true, our bodies do slow down and wear out So, the slide in fluid intelligence works out well as we age, thus
as we age (and even faster if we abused our bodies in our 20's, allowing us to be happier emotionally, even though our bodies are
30's and 40's with alcohol, drugs, poor food choices, and/or lack of slowing down and not allowing us to run as fast or jump as high as
regular exercise). Yet the question remains, does being happy in when we were younger.
our old age have everything to do with the physical aspect of our
health or does our attitude act as the real predictor of happiness?
The fact remains, we all will get older, our bodies will wear out, and
part of our minds will slow down. If we can convince our younger
Reviewing three different sources (a Gallup poll conducted in population to stop smoking, eat healthier, exercise more, and learn
2008 covering phone conversations with 340,000 people, a study to relax; they may experience happiness even before they get old.
conducted by Queen's University in Belfast, and a study conducted
by four researchers at the University of Virginia psychology depart- Youth, in many ways, is wasted on the young. As Abraham Lincoln
ment and published in The Journal of Positive Psychology), I found once said, "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's
some interesting results... Apparently, as we mature and age, most the life in your years."
young people (ages 18 and up) consider being "old" as a depress-
ing time in their lives. A time when they can no longer run as hard,
drink as much, stay out as long, or think as clearly. In short, young-
er people tend to think of life as being for the young, with old age San Diego Woman
as something that will just happen with time - so you might as well
get as much out of life as possible when you are able to.
If we set aside all the parameters of the studies, the many 31
variables that could be argued, the different methods of collect-
ing data, etc., we find that one perspective rings true: How you
perceive aging dictates your level of happiness. In other words,
if you face life's inevitable consequences with a positive attitude
rather than complaining about everything, you most likely will
score higher on all happiness studies.

We all know that living through our younger adult years (16
through 25) can be very difficult, with many young adults feeling
depressed, lost, and stressed. This can continue through until age
50 or so, when for many adults they begin to settle into a happier
state on mind. Mind you, we are not speaking of all people, simply
a sampling as conducted by these studies. Yet, it does indicate
a pattern that with some education could very well lead to more
awareness and, as such, more happiness in younger adulthood
as people learn to control their lives.

One example from The University of Virginia study shows that
cognitive functioning, which many of us think of as a predictor of
happiness (i.e., as we lose our ability to think clearly and quickly
we must be less happy), was just the opposite.
Cognitive functioning was divided into two areas: crystallized intel-
ligence - "what you've learned, memories, your experiences," and
fluid intelligence - "reasoning, abstraction, making inferences."

Crystallized intelligence was of little statistical importance when
measuring happiness, yet fluid intelligence was significant. Fluid