Age and Happiness

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Recommended: What is happiness and its significance for human life

Teenagers and young adults are commonly presumed to be shallow — preferring hedonic happiness over eudaimonic happiness, suffering violent mood swings, taking many risks, rebelling, and being constantly depressed. However, the real answers are quite contrary to the stereotype. A survey of adolescents and young adults were asked to rate several items based on importance (relationships, money, learning, work, free time, and possessions), on a scale of 1-6 with 6 being the least important. The following were most commonly rated as the most important in the following order: relationships and learning, money, work and free time and possessions. The following were the most frequently rated as the least important: free time and work, possessions, relationships and money, and learning. Thus, it seems like adolescents tend to value relationships and learning the most, while putting free time and work at the end of the scale. This paints a portrait of a studious person who cares about personal relationships above free time and working. So, while this indicates a the general willingness to look towards the future, it is probably not forward-facing enough to care about future occupation. It is interesting to note that out of all the people surveyed, NONE of them listed learning as the least important.

As for the adults, they most often rated relationships as the most important, and possessions as the least important. Unfortunately, this category did not include any people of retirement age who likely would have had different experiences with the matter. Still, all of the adults strongly agreed with the fact that they had all the “important things” in their lives. While most adolescents also felt this way, there were a marked nu...

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...mist.com/node/17722567>.

Canada.Com "Finding out what makes kids happy" Calgary Herald February 28, 2008.

Gelman, A. "Age and Happiness: The Pattern Isn't as Clear as You Might Think - Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science." Columbia University Department of Statistics. 26 Dec. 2010. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. .

Mauss, Et Al. "Don't Hide Your Happiness! Positive Emotion Dissociation, Social Connectedness, and Psychological

Functioning." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Apr. 2011: 738-48. PsychInfo. Web. 08 Apr. 2013.

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USA Today Health and Behavior "Psychologist now know what makes people happy" Marilyn Elias Posted 12/8/2012

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