“…Contrary to largely gloomy cultural perceptions … growing old brings some benefits … notably emotional and cognitive stability.
Laura Carstensen, a Stanford social psychologist calls this the “well-being paradox.”
Although adults older than 65 face challenges to body and brain …
… the 70s and 80s also bring an abundance of social and emotional knowledge … qualities scientists are beginning to define as wisdom.
As Carstensen and another social psychologist, Fredda Blanchard-Fields of the Georgia Institute of Technology, have shown …
… adults gain a toolbox of social and emotional instincts as they age.
According to Blanchard-Fields, seniors acquire a feel … an enhanced sense of knowing right from wrong …
… and therefore a way to make sound life decisions.
That may help explain the finding that old age correlates with happiness.
A study published this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science found a U-shaped relationship between happiness and age: …
… Adults were happiest in youth and again in their 70s and early 80s …
… and least happy in middle age…”
go to source/story>>>Researchers find that wisdom and happiness increase as people grow older – Vegsource.com
