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Tag: "study"

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Longitudinal study tells us what makes people happy
By Erich Vieth on July 11th, 2009

Longitudinal study tells us what makes people happy

What makes people happy? On quite a few occasions, I’ve posted at DI with regard to ideas that I learned through reading various books and articles (a search for “happiness” in the DI search box will give you dozens of articles). What does that reveal about me, I wonder?

Today, I had the pleasure of reading an extraordinarily thoughtful article on this same topic: “What Makes Us Happy?” by Joshua Wolf Shenk appears in the June 2009 edition of The Atlantic. You’ll find an abridged edition of the article here.

Shenk’s article is anchored by the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest running longitudinally study of mental and physical well-being in history. It was begun in 1937 in order to study “well-adjusted Harvard sophomores (all male), and it has followed its subject for more than 70 years.” The study was originally known as “The Grant Study,” in that it was originally funded by W.T. Grant. Despite all odds, the study has survived to this day–many of the subjects are now in their upper 80’s. Along the way, the study was supplemented with a separate study launched in 1937 dedicated to studying juvenile delinquents in inner-city Boston (run by criminologists Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck).

You’ll enjoy Joshua Shenk’s work on many levels. He writes with precision, providing you with a deep understanding of the featured longitudinal studies. You will also enjoy his seemingly effortless ability to spin engaging stories (there are dozens of stories within his article) and his exceptional skill at crafting highly readable prose. I’m writing this post as a dare, then. Go forth and read Shenk’s article and I guarantee that you will be thoroughly enriched and appreciative.

The Atlantic also provided a video interview of George Vaillant, now 74, who since 1967 has dedicated his career to running and analyzing the Grant Study. As you’ll see from Shenk’s article, Vaillant is an exceptional storyteller himself. The Atlantic article, then, might remind you of one of those Russian dolls, and that is a storyteller telling the story of another storyteller who tell stories of hundreds of other storytellers. For more than 40 years, Vaillant has not only gathered reams of technical data, but he has poured his energy into interviewing the subjects and their families and melding all of that data into compellingly detailed vignettes of the subjects. Telling stories is not ultimately what the study was supposed to be about, of course, and Vaillant also tells us what those stories mean for the rest of us. Truly, what makes people happy? Vaillant offers answers that you will be tempted to immediately apply to your own situation.

Vaillant has a lot to say about “adaptations,” how people respond to the challenges they face in life. As a Shenk explains,

American Culture • Community • Friendships/relationships • Health • Meaning of Life • Networking • Psychology Cognition • Science
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Should science study race and IQ?
By Erich Vieth on March 06th, 2009

Should science study race and IQ?

Should science study race and IQ? A recent article in Nature (”Should scientists study race and IQ“) says yes, as long as the research is done carefully and kept free of outside influence and premature application by social scientists and politicians. Science did not give rise to bigotry. After all, scientific studies of race and IQ began in relatively modern times, only after long centuries of “pernicious folk-theories of racial and gender inferiority predated scientific studies.” The authors believe that first-rate scientific research will, in the end, dispel much of the racial bigotry that still exists.

Some scientists hold more ‘acceptable’ views, ourselves included. We think racial and gender differences in IQ are not innate but instead reflect environmental challenges. Although we endorse this view, plenty of scholars remain unpersuaded. Whereas our ‘politically correct’ work garners us praise, speaking invitations and book contracts, challengers are demeaned, ostracized and occasionally threatened with tenure revocation.

Acts of censure edge close to Lysenkoism. They also do a disservice to science. When dissenters’ positions are prevented exposure in high-impact journals and excluded from conferences, the dominant side goes unchallenged, and eventually its rationale is forgotten, forestalling the evolution of crucial ideas.

I am sympathetic to the need to for scientists to carefully examine everything, no exceptions. I’m concerned, though, that we need to look extra-closely at the concept of “race,” which I consider to be virtually useless in daily matters. Nor should we allow the simplistic concept of “IQ” to serve as a variable, given much more expansive ways to measure intelligence (see, for example this post on Howard Gardner’s work). For more on the dangers of misusing “IQ,” see Steven J. Gould’s 1996 book, “The Mismeasure of Man.”

In sum, we should do good science and I believe that good science would suffocate bigotry. The article points out several examples of this. Good science should be done on only after kicking out the clumsy, pernicious concepts of “race” and “IQ,” reframing the debate as the relationship between fine-grained genotypic variation and competence in each of the many ways in which humans display competence. Because genotypic variation within “races” is at least as wide as genotypic variation among “races,” a meaningful scientific exploration would not amount to a simplistic survey of how people with different colors of skin do on standardized intelligence tests. That would not be good science. Good science will always take into account the convoluted ever-changing environment, and that is not easy to do when we are dealing with basic concepts that are vague.

I’m not convinced that we are prepared to begin the necessary research on this general topic, because too many of us, including many well-trained scientists, have not done their ontological homework (consider the incoherent and clumsy stumblings of DNA co-discoverer James Watson, described in the article). Are “race” and “IQ” useful constructs with which to do this sort of research? Time will tell if we are intelligent enough to sharpen our constructs before running off to demonstrate our “truths.”

Culture • Education • Featured • Science • snake oil
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By Erich Vieth on February 06th, 2009

To what extent are homophobic men attracted to other men?

In this age of Ted Haggard, the question is an obvious one: To what extent are homophobic sexually attracted to other men? This January 2009 Scientific American article explores the research regarding these two variables. There appears to be a correlation.

Bigotry • Psychology Cognition
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By Erich Vieth on August 11th, 2008

Our hunger for “The Gene for X” stories and other simplistic explanations

Can one gene make a difference?  Absolutely.  One case in point is Tay-Sachs Disease, a physical condition  where the central nervous system begins to degenerate in a four to six month old child who, until the onset of the disease, appeared normal.  Individuals with Tay-Sachs disease have two copies of a genetic mutation, one copy [...]

American Culture • Cultural Evolution • Evolution • Media • Psychology Cognition • Science
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0
By Erich Vieth on May 07th, 2008

Inequity aversion in monkeys.

Frans de Waal was recently interviewed by Stephen J. Dubner in the Freakonomics blog of the NYT. Dubner co-authored Freakonomics with Steven D. Levitt. De Waal and Dubner discussed the ramifications of an experiment where capuchin monkeys received either a grape or a piece of cucumber in return for a simple task.
If both [...]

American Culture • Friendships/relationships • Psychology Cognition • Science
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By Erich Vieth on April 14th, 2008

What you can do with a philosophy degree.

Philosophy majors are not getting rich, but they’re able to buy enough food to allow them to sit around and ponder things.   Truth be told, philosophy majors are at the bottom of the list in starting salaries.  As someone who majored in philosophy, I found these statistics to be of interest.   In my junior year of undergrad, [...]

American Culture • Economy
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By Erich Vieth on December 02nd, 2007

Why do conservatives become conservative? It’s not a rational choice.

Nor is it primarily the result of a rational choice (i.e., a systematic analysis of facts) that liberals become liberals. 
We’d like to believe that we adopt our political views rationally, only after careful consideration of the “facts.” That’s a pipe dream, however.  Jay Dixit’s article, “The Ideological Animal,” (published by Psychology Today) demonstrates that our political [...]

Politics • Psychology Cognition
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By Erich Vieth on November 21st, 2007

The best social psychology studies of all time . . .

Psyblog presents a handy summary of ten of the most famous social psychology studies. The post is a succinct review of each of the following studies, along with thoughtful commentary.  The social psychological studies include the following:
 1. The Halo Effect - Nisbett
 2. Cognitive Dissonance - Festinger
 3. Robbers Cave - Sherif
 4. Stanford Prison Experiment - Zimbardo
 5. Obedience [...]

Psychology Cognition • Web Site
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By Erich Vieth on April 02nd, 2007

How to be happy

I often jump at the chance to report on new well-written articles regarding happiness, especially when they are based upon science rather than mere anecdotes.
Last year, I started a subscription to Scientific American Mind  It’s a well-written magazine that addresses lively and timely topics.  Be February-March 2007 issue contains an article entitled “Why It’s so [...]

Psychology Cognition
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By Erich Vieth on March 23rd, 2007

Recounting the dead in Iraq

Many of us remember a scientific paper released back in October 2006.  It claimed that more than a half-million Iraqi people had died as a result of the US invasion.  The paper, published in Lancet, has been attacked ferociously by the Bush administration.
The March 1, 2007 issue of Nature (only available to subscribers online) describes [...]

Iraq • War
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By Erich Vieth on July 09th, 2006

Just because . . .

In his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (1998), Robert Cialdini describes an experiment that illustrated the power of the word “because.”  
The experiment was conducted by Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer, who found that people are highly motivated by the form of others’ reasons, even reasons lack persuasive content.  In her experiment, confederates approached people [...]

Psychology Cognition
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