Negative life experiences cause unhappiness

[MojoMan]

I always ridiculed psychology "research" but this is absurd.

 

"Researchers" at the University of Chicago have drawn an earthshaking conclusion. If your life is sh!tty; you get unhappy. Oh yeah, these peeps also think they can quantify happiness and generalize it to our entire population of 300M diverse people. Their other conclusion is that we, as Americans, have 15% more troubles than we did 12 years ago.

 

Read on...

 

The new year is often a time to reflect on past experiences. Some new research finds, some Americans are dealing with more negative life experiences than they did a decade ago.

 

Suzanne Cheney has been through a lot in the past year. The death of her mother, a divorce, a new career and now moving into a new home.

 

Cheney says, "I've gone through probably more challenges than most of the people that I know."

 

But what researchers at the University of Chicago found is that people like Cheney are not so alone. Tom Smith says, "What we find is that people are having more problems now, than they were in the early 90's and that their level of troubles has increased by 15 percent."

 

Researchers asked more than 13 hundred people about negative life events they'd experienced last year. They were asked to select events from a list of 60. The list included illness, high medical costs, unemployment, mounting bills, and troubled relationships. And, it's when all these negative events stack up, that smiles become frowns.

 

Dr. Mark Reinecke from Northwestern University says, "It's the accumulation of negative life events that leads individuals to feel unhappy, overwhelmed. To feel stress."

 

Then how can America shake unhappiness? Dr. Reinecke says, "Hope, is the key thing. A sense of optimism. A sense of control. When we see those we can tend to get thru just about anything."

 

Cheney says hope for the future is where she gets her strength. "And strong and happy now-a-days. Is pretty darn good place to be."

 

Researchers at the University of Chicago say they were actually surprised by the results of this study. They thought the economic boom of the 1990's would have made for a happier America. Instead, they found financial concerns are still a constant source of worry.

 

LINK: http://www1.whdh.com/features/articles/healthcast/BO12358/

 

If we are funding this kind of crap as taxpayers, I consider this to be a negative life experience.

[Chargerz]

DUH!!!!!!!!!!

[The Irish Doggy]

I'll need to study this further before coming to a conclusion myself.

[TimC]

Instead, they found financial concerns are still a constant source of worry.

 

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I'll tell ya why. Because people didn't have $100+ digital cable/satellite bills, $40 high-speed internet monthly charges, $600 SUV payments, and $50+++ cell phone bills where every member (including the kids) have to have one in 1990.

 

The average American salary of $38k can't absorb those types of monthly bills and not hurt. I don't know how people do it and don't drown in debt....wait they are.

 

The guy that cleans our office building talks on his cell phone all day long.

Edited January 11, 2006 by TimC