Coronavirus Lockdown Mental Equilibrium

"With more moderate assumptions about losses in work time and income, and with all non-sleep time listed as being with one's spouse, the simulations suggest that the happiness of married individuals could have been increased slightly by the lockdown."
"Even under fairly conservative assumptions, their [single people] happiness decreases and with more extreme assumptions the decrease is quite substantial." 
"Time alone remains highly significantly negative [for single people, as opposed to the happiness level of married people]."
Daniel Hamermesh, economist, Barnard College

There have been increasing reports in the news media from all different sources and countries experiencing lockdown during the novel coronavirus pandemic that domestic assaults have increased. That couples living together and experiencing the stresses of being together constantly see women being battered increasingly. The concern is that not only are women facing more physical violence at home with enforced lockdowns, the resources to which they might normally turn for aid are no longer available to them as all businesses and services have also gone into lockdown. Males simmering with resentment at losing employment, look for a scapegoat so they can release their tensions. Women become victims.

Life can be very complicated. Modelling undertaken by economists to try to determine how people are faring under lockdown conditions and social distancing emphasize, however, that it is single people who live alone and now really are alone, who are experiencing mental health adversity. Massive studies of how people use their time determining how happy they are formed the insightful base for the simulation.

The average person,, goes the assumption through the modelling insights, in spending time with their spouse receives a boost in the happiness quotient. Conversely, for every minute spent alone for the average single person, their unhappiness potential grows. This disparity in how people are managing to cope with the worldwide lockdown is emphasized in a working paper released at the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States.

Economist Daniel Hamermesh's simulations clearly support the idea that the average married person is happier in lockdown, as opposed to the average single person who comes out of the experience miserable. Another, predicable boost in life satisfaction is supported by higher incomes. The more people work the more satisfied they appear to be with their lives. Those suffering a job loss, irrespective of marital status experience a low in life satisfaction.

Single people tend to spend more time with friends and relatives  under normal circumstances, to boost their happiness level, since we are after all, social creatures. Stay-at-home and social distancing regulations have put a crimp in that formula, making socializing of that kind difficult-to-impossible for a huge number of people.

Prepare Yourself: Unhappiness at Age Half-Century

"Unhappiness is hill-shaped in age. There is an unhappiness curve."
"[These new papers indicate a] surprising pattern in the data in 132 countries & numerous surveys & millions of people runs contrary to claims of some and earlier psychology literature that there is no such pattern."
"The happiness curve is found in 132 countries. No myth. It’s true for people who are single. It’s true for people who have got children, who haven’t got children. For men, it’s true for women."
"It looks like something that's naturally occurring. You can get it in great apes. The results imply that human well-being’s curved shape is not uniquely human and that, although it may be partly explained by aspects of human life and society, its origins may lie partly in the biology we share with great apes."
"There is growing evidence from around the world that prime-age adults are struggling, and especially so if they have low levels of education. This is particularly apparent in the United States that has seen a rapid rise in deaths of despair, principally down to drug poisonings and suicide."
"It's about isolation, loneliness, lack of help and lack of community. We need to recognize that this is something real and then help people to get through it."
"If you’re in a midlife crisis, just understand that lots of other people are as well. The other one is don’t be alone. It says that in the data that sharing things, dining with your neighbours, talking to your family, spending time with your family, letting people come and help you because eventually it will get better."
David Blanchflower, professor of economics, Dartmouth College

MarketWatch photo illustration/Getty Images

In a newly published study in the National Bureau of Economic Research former Bank of England policy maker David Blanchflower identifies the age of 47.2 as the climax of unhappiness for people in the developed world. A very similar index applies to people in developing nations; they are slightly behind by one point, one year, with age 48.2 the time of maturity of least happiness. Data based on close to ten million people from 40 countries in Europe and the United States were used by this researcher for one of his studies to examine the relationship between unhappiness and age.

"You're past your prime, you're past your peak. You're on the downward slope of the physical side of things now."
"It's like the worst of both worlds [neither the fun of youth nor the security of old age]."
"Children don't have huge mortgages or jobs to hold down. You're provided for; you're taken care of. You're with your family all the time, so you don't have the loneliness and anxiety and isolation [that arrive in later years]."
"[And then age tends to arrive with increased financial security]. You have your house, your savings, your retirement plans, your family is grown up and self-sufficient."
"People have a lot less to look forward to now -- climate problems, economic problems, political problems."
"There will be a lot of very substantial cultural and sociological elements that drives a population's happiness in either direction."
Dean Burnett, British neuroscientist, author: The Happy Brain: The Science of Where Happiness Comes From and Why

According to a new study, people in developed countries reach their peak misery at the age of 47.

Mr. Blanchflower identified 15 different indications of unhappiness which include despair, anxiety, loneliness, sadness, strain, depression and bad nerves, phobias and panic, being downhearted, loss of confidence, tension and 'thinking of yourself as a worthless person'. Two questions were also used in the index of unhappiness: was it difficult to feel hopeful about the future of the world; and was life in one's own country becoming worse? Whatever the criteria and response they seemed to add up to generalized unhappiness around age 50.

Mr. Blanchflower, himself 67 years of age, looked into age and subjective well-being in 132 countries in a separate paper titled 'Is Happiness U-shaped Everywhere?'. Taking education, marital and workforce status into account, he discovered that whether rich or poor, the outcomes were almost identical, merely a one-year differential between peak age when people are the least happy. Whether the identified median age was high or not, or whether people lived in countries with higher life expectancies, the curve's trajectory remained unchanged.

“The great sadness” of actor Ben Affleck,  47 years old. Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty

The most vulnerable people faced with this midlife crisis are being hit hard, he pointed out, even as marriage and religion are declining in many areas of the world. In the United Kingdom, a developed and wealthy country, wages are 4-1/2 percent below their 2008 position. With depression increasing among populations, the depth of general despair "looks to be disastrous" pointed out Mr. Blanchflower who had written Not Working: Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone?

Dr. Burnett, the British neuroscientist, pointed out that the brain is not a static organ, it adapts to whatever conditions appear before it. So the discovery that happiness becomes altered over long periods of time, or that a U-shaped curve in human mental states exists does not particularly present as a novel idea. And the good news is that as one grows into senior years matters have a tendency to improve, the happiness or satisfaction-with-life factor climbs upward....

 The study's author David Blanchflower, now in his 60s, says his happiness is only trending upwards. (dartmouth.edu)

 

Trivializing Inconstancy

"I think a lot of times people are quite floored when they see a 75-year-old who wants a divorce. In my personal experience, I would say that grey divorces are becoming a lot more prevalent."
"I appears that people are living longer, and there is a shift from the age groups for divorces."
"Maybe initially they believed that this was the right person. And as you grow older, you may grow apart. And so the way they see it is ... I have less in front than there is behind so I need to focus on what's left of my life and really maximizing my happiness."
Diane Isaac, family lawyer, Shulman Law Firm, Toronto

"If we have a 30-year marriage, it's not that we have ten years left, but we may be only halfway through that marriage."
"People are looking at that and saying 'I have a long way to go and do I necessarily want to continue in an unhappy relationship?"
Eva Sachs, Mutual Solutions mediation service

"They weren't in the same position that my mother would have been, who didn't have any financial security outside the family [pre-two-earner families]."
"Millennials are less likely to divorce and there is a trend among millennials now to be more focused around planning their relationships, so writing co-habitation agreements, pre-nuptial agreements."
"And it could be because they are the children of divorce, they've seen a lot."
Marion Korn, co-founder, Mutual Solutions

Once the legal liberalization of divorce laws -- now ancient history -- occurred, divorce rates ratcheted up to the point where at the present time almost fifty percent of marriages over time, with or without children, end in divorce.Those who consider themselves experts in the field have their theories which, for the most part sound trite and superficial. Perhaps the most obvious and realistic explanation is expectations and failures relating to those expectations which are likely fixed within social constructs of everlasting love bypassing that human emotions and intimate relations are complex beyond expectations.

Aided and abetted by emotional immaturity and love that fails to go deep enough to exemplify what love truly is, that one cares about another human being not with the passion of a sexual relationship without context, but a sexual relationship complementing a deep and abiding concern for the well-being of that other and yes, placing that other person's well-being, satisfaction with life and happiness above one's own in that their emotional state is critical to the satisfaction of one's own. Health and happiness flow from a generous, not a selfish love.

That being been said, people will be people. And as such it is beyond the capacity of most people not to place their self-interest first, failing to recognize that their self-interest lies in the fulfillment of sharing a love with someone you plan to live with for the foreseeable future in a mutual engagement of trust, respect, friendship and shared aspirations. Free and open communication and due appreciation of the attributes that the other brings to the relationship is critical to its success. Self-absorption rings the death knell of any marriage.

The 1980s seems to have been the apex of divorce which some researchers believe is now descending in numbers. At the same time a new trend appears to be developing among older married couples who have decided for reasons, obviously, of their own to sunder a marriage of long standing. This may go beyond the old canard of couples hanging in until their children are old enough to manage on their own, then splitting. These are marriages of thirty years' duration and longer. They've been dubbed 'silver splitters' and 'diamond divorcees'.

Boomers in the United States, Australia, India and the United Kingdom are now, it would appear, distinguishing themselves by seeking in greater numbers, to end long-term marriages. In Canada, the median age for divorce rose between 1991 and 2008 for men from 38.3 to 44 years; women from 35.7 to 41 years. According to the Shulman Law firm, its own experience with numbers for the past decade led them to believe that grey divorce is steadily rising. In 2010 clients of 50 and over represented 10% of their business. Now however, that same demographic "constitutes approximately 40 percent".

Although the age group of 60 and over remains the minority of cases they see, that demographic has nearly doubled over the past decade. Divorce experts are linking the rise of elderly divorces to the fact that people are living longer, realizing a gain of about 20 years between 1921 and 2005, where life expectancy rose from 58.8 to 79 years for men and from 50.5 to 82.7 years for women. Older people examining their marriages now discard 'Can I manage on my own?' to adapt to an 'Am I happy?' self query.

Is Moderate Climate the Matter Over Mind?

Is Moderate Climate the Matter Over Mind?

"Growing up in temperatures that are close to the psycho-physiological comfort optimum encourages individuals to explore the outside environment, thereby influencing their personalities."
Study, Nature

"Overall, it is interesting that although people instinctively believe that better weather results in better moods, the evidence for this assumption is weak. In general, the effects of "better weather" on people's feelings are modest, inconsistent, and at times counter to commonly-held expectations. Moreover, warm weather seems associated with breakups and more antisocial behavior. Yet there can be benefits, not only directly for people who suffer from SAD, but via indirect effects when people get out in nature and exercise more. As with many assumptions in life, presumed cause-effect relations can be wrong. Often, the key to experiencing benefits depends on what people do with their opportunities rather than whether they simply have them in the first place."

Allen R McConnell Ph.D., Psychology Today

Does climate determine personality? I am not sure."
"But from my own research, I do know that weather and climate affect mood, and this may be reflected in some of the [study] authors' assessments."
Alan Stewart, professor of psychology, University of Georgia

So, does geographical climate have an effect on forming peoples' personalities? As in making them happier, more satisfied people, easier to get along with? If, that is, they happen to live where the climate is moderate, not given to extreme swings of warm and cold. We commonly think of people from the Nordic countries as being slightly morose in temperament, and people living say, in Hawaii, light-hearted and stable. These are impressions, they don't reflect actual scientific measurements of human nature being formed by prevailing weather patterns.

People living in northern climes, it is true, tend to fixate on the weather because they live with extremes of temperature and those extremes impose on their style of living, from travelling and communicating to recreational opportunities. In Canada, as an example, there is an outdoor winter culture that impresses people to get out in the snow and the cold because not only is it beautiful in appearance, but these conditions lend themselves to enjoying and taking part in winter recreational habits available to anyone -- and staying fit in the process.

Human beings tend to become bored with any kind of environment that seems static, unchanging. The change in seasons is a natural, unending ritual that brings a changing landscape introducing another chapter to the year's seasons, resulting in anticipation and appreciation of season-appropriate activities. If the transitions are to relatively moderate, albeit vastly different seasons they're more than tolerable. If the transitions herald extremes of alternate weather landscapes they can seem intrusive and unwanted.

If we take a geography like Hawaii as ideal, however, why is it that according to the U.S. Census Bureau there are more people leaving the state daily than there are those moving into it. While the weather may be great, the geological beauty impressive, the unemployment rate low with a robust labour market, and few concerns about cyclones hitting states like Florida, it is an enormously expensive place to live in. So while people living there may be happily satisfied with the climate, they are dissatisfied with the opportunities to forge ahead financially.

And quite the same can be said for Canada's Pacific coast province of British Columbia, a spectacular geography, never too hot and sun-baked in the summer, and with mild winters where snow falls for the most part in the interior and coastal mountains and cities like Vancouver enjoy moderate climatic features. The fly in that particular urban ointment is spectacularly high real estate costs, so much so that even with well-remunerated employment few residents can dream of owning their own homes in the urban core.

Tokyo's situation is much the same, with weather very similar to that of Georgia, for example, where a snowfall is rare, and when it does come down, it is languid and scarce and quickly dissipates as the unusual cold that brought it in leaves. On the other hand, summer heat and humidity in Tokyo can make life uncomfortable for those who prefer dryer, less humid and hot atmospheres. And again, like Hawaii and Vancouver, home ownership and rental costs are phenomenally expensive.

So what does make people happy and content? The researchers in the most recent study cited above conclude that in places where the comfort of warmth prevails for most of the year with an average high temperature about 21C people tend to be agreeable, open and emotionally stable growing up and maturing in a warm climate, as compared, for example to being raised and coming to maturity in Marquette, Michigan with its average high temperature of 10C.

Research has previously linked personality to geography; as in "Midwest nice", and "New York abrasive". But while it can be true that regions appear to have group personalities with social cultures that are recognizably linked to geographies, there is little proof of cause and effect. Yet according to the researchers linked to this new study  the significant factors in personalities are linked to the average temperatures prevailing in the places that nurture us. We are shaped personally by the climate we live with.

That should make Canadians pretty surly people, and they are, in fact, noted for their tendency to be rather moderate in their emotional presence to the point of being boringly predictable in their easy-going attitudes. Still, it is the researchers' contention that people who are raised in regions with average temperatures around 22C tend to be agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable, extroverted and open; personality traits psychologists identify as "the big five".

Take it with a grain of salt.