September 21, 2009

The article I found is about a 72 year old study that has followed the lives of 278 Harvard graduates. The studies of these graduates are based medical tests and detailed questionnaires about their marriage, happiness, etc. The man who has led the study for the past 42 years is psychiatrist George Vallaint, now 74. He documents for each individual a variety of factors including sickness, divorces, and deaths. An important part of his study is realizing that life isunpredictable. For instance, a man who was happy and sociable at the beginning of the study has also had a share of setbacks and depression. From these types of problems four ways of facing them emerges: psychotic adaptations, immature adaptations, neurotic defenses, and mature adaptations. The most common is neurotic defenses which includes repression and dissociation. But the “key to happiness” is mature adaptation which means to find proper outlets for feelings. I believe that if Vallaint included women in the study it would have probably produced the same results. Also, this study consists of predominantly white, middle-upper class men and results could have varied if additional races and classes were included.