Preview
Friday: my article "Old Age as a Stage of Life"
Monday: fall break
Wednesday Oct 22: review
Friday Oct 24: Exam 2
_________________________
Optimism about old age
- weak optimism: it will be ok, not worse
- strong optimism: it will be the best part of life!
Cicero's strong optimism
- Cicero seems to be a strong optimist--were going to have some great things in old age!
- Being greatly respected in old age is better than all the pleasures of youth!
The hedonistic argument for strong optimism
- Happiness is greater in old age. (psychology premise)
- Happiness is the only contributor to wellbeing. (hedonism premise)
- Therefore, wellbeing is greater in old age. (conclusion)
- If wellbeing is greater in old age, then old age is the best part of life. (definitional premise)
- Therefore, old age is the best part of life (conclusion)
Surprising? Absurd? A good argument?
Discussion
_________________________
Support for the psychology premise: happiness is greater in old age
- Graham and Pozuelo
_________________________
Laura Carstensen, Stanford psychologist -- the psychology of life endings
"Taking Time Seriously: A Theory of Socioemotional Selectivity" (with Derek Isacowitz and Susan Charles)
Summary:
- old age -- coming to end of life -- many pages
- old couple (vs. newlyweds) (p. 167) -- coming to end of life & marriage
- young people in high crime neighborhood (p. 167) -- coming to the end of short life
- young but terminally ill (p. 178) -- coming to the end of short life
- seniors (vs. first-years) (p. 167) -- coming to the end of college
- moving to a new place -- coming to the end of living here (p. 174)
- Exploration--we want to learn something new; so do new things, seek new friends and partners; future-focussed
- Emotional self-regulation--we want to keep ourselves in a good mood; so prefer tried-and-true experiences, friends, partners; present-focussed
Step 3. When we think time is running out, we prioritize emotional self-regulation
- applies to all of the situations in Step 1
- also applies to the whole lifespan
Step 4. The emotional self-regulation outlook leads to greater happiness
- In time-is-running-out situations (like old age) people are happier!
 |
| Taking Time Seriously, p. 169 |
Step 5. Evidence for the theory
College senior study (p. 176)
- seniors prefer to socialize with familiar partners
- first-years prefer to meet new people
Story study (p. 167)
- younger and older people given stories to read
- content categorized as informative or emotional
- younger people retain the informative material
- older people retain the emotional material
