Therapist Unlimited Blog

Contrary to what most people think, old age offers happiness to people around the world.
Researchers speaking at an international psychology conference said there was evidence that people get happier as they age, and that older people are better at controlling their emotions and avoiding things that make them unhappy.
However, the research team clarified this does not include people with dementia or who are trapped in situations of high stress that they cannot escape from, such as care giving.
Dr. Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA, and founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, explained life expectancy changed because people changed the way they lived.
Carstensen added now that we’re here, we have to keep adapting, we are in the middle of a second revolution and it’s up to us to make adulthood itself longer and healthier.
She revealed Carstensen said by 2050 there will be twice as many people over the age of 65 in the world as there are today.

Generally older people are happy than sad.

And the segment of the population that is growing faster than any other, is the over 85s.
Susan Turk Charles, from the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine, in a separate presentation, talked about several studies on aging and mental health that she had reviewed.
Excluding people with dementia and related diseases, the evidence supports the idea that, on the whole, mental health improves with age.
Charles referred to a study that followed three groups of people at different life stages for 23 years and found emotional happiness increased as they got older.
She said research also shows that older adults are better at controlling their emotions than younger adults, and this helps them avoid negative situations, or at least limit the emotional damage they can cause. One study she reviewed asked younger and older adults to report what they were thinking and feeling just after hearing personal criticisms by other people.
The results showed that the younger adults tended to dwell far more on the comments and demanding information about their origins than the older adults whose reports were less negative overall.
Charles said that work by Carstensen and others suggests older people are increasingly aware that life is finite and the time they have left is shrinking.
She added they want to make the best of it so they avoid engaging in situations that will make them unhappy.
She said they have also had more time to learn and understand the intentions of others which help them to avoid these stressful situations.