Quelling the Quarter Life Crisis With Psychology and Economics

The Huffington Post:

Many young adults today find themselves facing a crisis of direction in their lives and identify this experience as a ‘quarter life crisis.’ Critics however suggest that this is nothing more than common life angst, heighted by the echo chambers of a hyper-connected culture. Regardless of the debate around the breadth and depth of the so-called “quarter life crisis,” there are clear indicators that point not only to a definitive phenomena of anxiety experienced by young adults over their personal and career life trajectories but also data that suggests that this experience is increasingly common.

Psychologist Martin Seligman and his colleagues observe a paradoxical rise in depression in our country over the last 50 years despite the increasing per capita income, education, longevity and general ease of life. David Myers, also a psychologist, notes that between the 1960s and 1990s, measures of societal health decline (divorce rates, suicide rates, violent crime rates) have all increased by at least two times. And the sociologist Robert Putnam points out that for younger generations of Americans since the mid-20th century, a worsening trend is occurring in terms of “headaches, indigestion, sleeplessness, as well as general satisfaction with life.”

Read the whole story: The Huffington Post