RE: Reaearch on HAPPINESS
Hi Sharon,
I was dumbfounded to read that the narrator describes this research as 'a frivolous subject.' Happiness is not frivolous.
I do think that the author of the article is certainly massaging the statistics, and using very political language to describe the method and results. I am sure that a more scientific study into happiness would not need to include such triteness, personally speaking.
Love,
Patsy.
[:-]
RE: Reaearch on HAPPINESS
Sharon,
I haven't read your article, so can only comment on the quote:
Men often complain about their wives' volatility. Now research confirms that women really are both happier and sadder. Positive and negative emotions are not polar opposites you can have both in your life. Women experience more of all emotions except anger. First it was found that women experience twice as much depression as men. Next, researchers found that women report more positive emotion than men, more frequently and more intensely. It all points to men and women having a different emotional make-up. Cognitive psychologists say that men and women have different skills related to sending and receiving emotion. Women are expressive; men conceal or control their emotions. Women convey emotion through facial expression and communication; men express emotion through aggressive or distracting behaviour. Does the difference lie in biology, social roles or just women's willingness to report emotion? That's up for debate.
That IMHO trots out the old old cliché, that women are biologicaly, mentally, diferent from men, that nature has been dominant over nurture. Sorry, I do not buy that; appart from the fact that almost almost phsychological/socialogical research/opinion, is/has to be, heavily subjective, it's plain wrong.
Appart from the differences that are there because of the different sexual roles, men and women are the same, IMHO.It is nurture, the pressure of peers, of society that has driven men and women into differnt behavioural camps.
It is grossly unscientific to say that 'women are both happier and sadder', some are, some are not. Great music conveys and needs the driving force of the entire gamut of emotion, yet there is not one great woman composer or artist of note. Does this indicate that only men have the ability to feel both intense emotions, contray to the 'research'? Of course it does not. Society, has for many millenia been in the cave age, where the sexual attributes have prevailed, the strength of the male and the child bearing role of the female, continued to dictate the roles of men and women, long after they should have.
We are now seeing that women, thrust by the demographic necessity of two world wars, into activities normally reserved for men, are showing all the classic emotional attributes of the male; they are just as prone to anger, just as prone to 'bottle up their emotions'. The only factor threatening the total equality of women with men, is a social and bio/sexual one, that of the well being of the family unit and the inability of the male to conceive.
As for:
Women convey emotion through facial expression and communication; men express emotion through aggressive or distracting behaviour.
,
that is so ridiculous that I echo Patsy:
I wonder if these people ever live in the real world?
Dangerous and divisive rubbish, but still good food for bebate,, thank youSharon.
Leonardo
RE: Reaearch on HAPPINESS
OOh well - here' s what I observed this afternoon, in a mums and toddler session with my grand-daughter (age range 1yr to 3).
Little girls playing sociably, concentrating while they "drew". Little boys playing aeroplanes and buzzing around the hall. There were the odd one or two who did both - but these little children conformed to stereotype, unbidden by their mothers who jsut wanted a cup of tea and a chat.
Having had 3 boys myself, and at the start of it allthinking gender stereotypes were nurture not nature, I was knocked sideways by the level of energythe boys had, in contrast to little girls, who put more energy into communicating. And my grandaughter jsut confirms that. They start off different. She's only 20 months, and has a range of toys to play with - she always goes for the girly ones, but she does kick a football around quite usefully.And she chatters incessantly. My sons loved to play with toy cars.......
Of course we share all human emotions and abilities: but I seem to "know" something different to you and Patsy - IMO we are the same but different.
And IME men are less good at verbal communication than women, and I know this is a sweeping generalisation and doesn't includeour milkman who never shuts up. And if verbal communication does not come easily there isalways physical expression. Ergo...etc etc.
Anyway, I'm sorry you didn't like the article - and I agree this bit isn't very good, because it's not backed up by any studies, and could as well be my opinion as yours or the Journalist's (not a narrator - she's a reporter for the Times Newspaper and it was her comment that the Science of Happiness is frivolous - not the researchers' opinion'). But I do think the whole thing is interesting - and a worthwhile thing to study.
Sharon.