If old then happy?

After reading a review of the results from the National Academy of Sciences, also from NYT, I immediately had to look up the findings to identify the comparison group. The population, objective and results from the study weren't clear.

The title of the Times article is "Happiness May Come with Age, Study Says". Did this study compare results from the same people from several years ago with current results? Did they only ask the question once of people of all different ages and find a generational difference in happiness? Could the NYT have presented a misleading picture of the results?

The times reports that "...by almost any measure, people get happier as they get older...". The problem is HOW this study was presented. From this description, I'm led to believe I'll become happier when I age, but first it will get worse until I reach age 50:

On the global measure, people start out at age 18 feeling pretty good about themselves, and then, apparently, life begins to throw curve balls. They feel worse and worse until they hit 50. At that point, there is a sharp reversal, and people keep getting happier as they age. By the time they are 85, they are even more satisfied with themselves than they were at 18.

In measuring immediate well-being — yesterday’s emotional state — the researchers found that stress declines from age 22 onward, reaching its lowest point at 85. Worry stays fairly steady until 50, then sharply drops off. Anger decreases steadily from 18 on, and sadness rises to a peak at 50, declines to 73, then rises slightly again to 85. Enjoyment and happiness have similar curves: they both decrease gradually until we hit 50, rise steadily for the next 25 years, and then decline very slightly at the end, but they never again reach the low point of our early 50s.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but the way I read it, it sounds like they followed people over time and evaluated their happiness from age 18 to 85.

But...these aren't the same people. What if the difference in happiness is generational, rather than a generalizable age-based trend. The ones who are satisfied with themselves at 85 may have not have scored the same when they were 18; it would have been 1941. If this same Gallup pole were done in 1941, we may have seen a very different picture.

Also, 2008 was the height of our recent economic crisis. Maybe people at either end of the age spectrum, who answered the phone for the Gallup pole, were less affected by the economic crisis and less stressed about it than those in their 40's.

For selfish reasons, I can't get too mad. When the details of the study design are ignored and results presented in a way that implies an impossible study design, I'm prompted to read things that I generally wouldn't get around to reading. And, I end up reading papers more carefully as a consequence.

For unselfish reasons, I wish the media was able to properly represent study results and entertain their audience.

OK, so I'm sure you get my point by now. Yes, there are flaws to this study (as with any study), but I like the idea. So. Let's just say people get happier with age. I'm hoping there's something to look forward to. What I want to know is...how?

Based on a systematic evaluation of no information at all, I FEEL like they get happier by moving in one of two directions: a) they find a routine, settle down and putz about in the comfort and familiarity of their daily doings; or b) they get more relaxed and adventurous--letting down their guard and escaping the worry of keeping up with the day to day. Both directions result in happiness. Not a bad deal.

For me it's interesting to see what happiness or stress is to each person--how the same experience might be are stressful to some, but adventurous or fun to others.