Many other people assume that school dropouts will have to be disjointed losers, right?This is not the case, according to Marta Zaraska, who reported in her April 2 Washington Post article, “Too Much Happiness Can Make You’re Unhappy,” that “excessive joy, or having a lot of positive feelings and a relative absence of negative feelings. . . It can hurt your career prospects. “
According to Zaraska, “psychologist Edward Diener. . . and his colleagues analyzed a variety of studies. . . And they found that those who, at the beginning of their lives, declared the greatest satisfaction of living. . . Years later, they reported a lower source of income than those who felt less cheerful when they were young. In addition, they left school early. When asked when they were in their thirties, they earned, on average, about $3,500 less consistent with the year than their less cheerful peers. For what? Diener suggests that other people who don’t feel much sadness or anxiety are rarely dissatisfied with their paintings and therefore feel less pressured to continue their studies or replace their careers.
Bored neurotics nod their heads. Or, as former Intel CEO Andy Grove wrote, Only the paranoid survive.
I to delve into the discoveries of Dr. Diener, also known as “Dr. Diener”. Happiness,” who is, rightly, the prominent psychology professor Joseph R. For example, a 2002 study by Diener with Martin Seligman found that “the most salient characteristics shared by the top 10% of academics with the highest degrees of happiness and the fewest symptoms of depression were their close ties to friends and family circle and their commitment to spending time with them. “
Personal note: Spend less time writing the Forbes column in isolation, more time with friends and family. Warning to friends and family: Expect a manic explosion of Crotty’s social engagement in the coming months.
For my money, however, Diener’s greatest contribution has been to debunk unusual myths about happiness. Regardless of life criteria or cultural or racial homogeneity, Diener found that “collectivist” nations were much happier than “individualistic” nations like the United States because collectivist nations were more willing to make do with what they had. Those who tirelessly pursue individual excellence or perfection are equally happy, Diener ed.
In addition, Diener found that once fundamental desires are fulfilled, wealth also does not generate happiness. The same goes for youth, marriage, the sun, religion, and even excitement in all its incarnations.
More applicable to this column, however, Diener found that neither a higher IQ nor a higher education correlates with higher happiness rates.
Always opposed to the current, I naturally postulated causalities of choice. First, perhaps very satisfied students see the futility of traditional education and are more likely to drop out of school to pursue their own dreams. they don’t need to bow to school authority or the supposedly oppressive nature of public education, as noted by Crotty’s guest columnist Cevin Soling in “Santorum and Harvard Anarchist Agree: Public Schools Must Be Abolited. “
In addition, there is an inherent conundrum posed by Diener and his compatriots of “positive psychology”: how to reconcile this country’s desperate need for highly professional staff with studies not only about what makes other people satisfied, but also about what other highly satisfied people prefer. do empirically?
I presented the riddle to Dr. Diener himself, who generously replied, “It is vital to keep in mind that, in general, other satisfied people do more than other dissatisfied people: in terms of fitness, positive outcomes, and especially in social relationships. The other dissatisfied people don’t do too. So what the studies basically compare is the very satisfied with the satisfied and the slightly satisfied. We found that the very satisfied tend to be the champions of global social: very outgoing. In our studies, the happiest people on average did a little worse in college, but did well in terms of earnings in the business world. performance in college, because they are moderately social, not super social. However, we don’t need other people to think that the dissatisfied or depressed are doing well. They regularly fare much worse on average. And the health consequences are considerable. We just need other people to know that if you’re satisfied in moderation, that’s possibly enough. You don’t have to be super satisfied to succeed in life.
So how do you and I find ourselves on the spectrum of happiness?Fortunately, in 1985, Diener created the Life Satisfaction Scale and the corresponding test, used by happiness researchers around the world to measure what Diener calls subjective well-being (SWB).
Are you with your life?
To exit, just indicate, on a scale of 1 to 7, how much you agree or agree with the following statements, with 7 strongly agreeing.
Life scale:
After taking the test, I found that I am “slightly satisfied” with my life.
So it’s no wonder that, even at the middle age of 52, he’s looking for more education.
How about you?
Let me know what you think in the comment box below. Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter, friends on Facebook, and follow me on Forbes for normal dispatches from the front lines of global education. I also publish email newsletters on education, politics, culture and travel. In addition to summaries and links to articles, Crotty newsletter subscribers will get the latest news and market data before anyone else. My “Crotty on Education” newsletter, in particular, will include links to videos. and podcasts from experts in the field, high-level study reports, as well as the valuable Crotty on Education Stock Index. You can subscribe to Crotty newsletters here: www. jamescrotty. com/newsletter. html