The Longevity Project Reflections

Chapter 12 helps the reader develop an understanding the importance of a social network in relation to life longevity. In the chapter about religion, we saw that the social benefits of religion were more likely to be related to having a longer life than faith itself. In this chapter, it reiterates a similar idea except that quantity matters. Having a larger social network is correlated with longer lives while feeling secure in your relationship only makes you feel better. In addition, pets are not good substitutes for human friends. While I do agree with the chapter’s content, the reading continues to be vague. For example, it never really specified the ideal number for people in your network…shouldn’t that be important? If you are going to report a finding stating that a larger social network is related to longevity, shouldn’t you give a range of how many people you’d want in your life? Or is it just the perception of the individual that matters? In other words, will the individual have a higher chance at longevity if they perceive their network to be large?

Chapter 13 states that more feminine women AND men show to live longer lives when compared to masculine men and women. This may be due to gender roles and one’s smoking and financial responsibilities. Furthermore, feminine women/men may be more likely to tell others about their problems, allowing them to cope with stress. Gender roles also may lead men to live shorter lives since their wives aren’t reminding them of healthy behaviors or having a broken heart. At the end of the chapter, the reading poses a great question: does it matter if your significant other is masculine or feminine as well? In my opinion, it does. For example, if my partner is a feminine man, I’d imagine that there would be more reciprocal communication between us versus a masculine man. While I do think this is an interesting question, it needs to be reworded to match today’s society where people do not identify or report having strictly feminine and masculine traits.

The chapter on social support really surprised me. I was kind of confused by the fact that the researchers stressed the number of relationships that you have rather than the quality. Doesn’t the phrase “quality not quantity” mean something? In my personal experience, I have 2 best friends from home that are my people and I frankly feel fulfilled just having them as my friends. I really don’t ever feel like I’m missing something or I don’t have enough social connections. The statements the researchers made threw me off because I’m someone who prefers to have a few great friends rather than a whole bunch of semi-decent friends. On the test, I scored a 13, which really concerns me! I do feel like I have the social support that I need, but I don’t have a million friends and I’m not someone who loves giving advice or telling people what they should do. Therefore, the conclusion the researchers made in my opinion may be presented in the wrong way. I think it’s important to have solid and strong social support, rather than a quantity of people and relationships within your social network.

I thought the chapter on Gender was interesting. I’ve definitely always heard that women live longer than men and genuinely wondered why. In my head I always thought it was a genetic predisposition or something combined with the personality traits of women. From personal experience, I know that I continuously analyze my body for flaws and pay extremely close attention to my health and relationships with others, therefore, promoting a longer life for me. However, it was interesting to see that personality traits such as social connection and empathy were actually relevant in longevity and were more common in women than men. Additionally, I found it extremely interesting that feminine men outlived the masculine women. That to me is astounding and actually quite frightening as I am considered a masculine woman. In the test, I scored a -7 which would lean me to the more masculine side and actually kind of concerns me for the state of my longevity. I think the point at the end of the chapter is relevant though that throughout all these chapters it’s impossible to just tell yourself to change your personality traits in order to live a longer life. At the end of the day, you are who you are and there are just some things you can’t change. That’s not to say that there aren’t other things that you can take a closer look at and refine in your personality though.

Although I think that the majority of people would assume that a person’s “connections” with others — if they are positive or if there are many — would lead to a long life, I also think the researchers did a good job of choosing which activities could serve as accurate markers of social support. I feel as though often times, people assume that if one has an abundance of social connections, they are happy or pleased with life. However, it is certainly important to also consider the level of satisfaction one truly has with these “social connections,” which the researchers evaluated. I found the “self-assessment” in Chapter 12 to be useful, but I think that some of the questions could, perhaps, be worded differently. For example, one questions asks: “How many relatives do you see or hear from at least once per month?” I know there are people who are very distant from their families, but this does not mean they are socially isolated. These people spend much of their time with their friends, or with their partner/family of their partner, and this goes for situations that are the other way around as well. Certain people do not have many friends they could call for help if they needed to do so, but they do have strong ties with their families, or very large families they can count on. For this reason, I think it would be helpful to ask the questions in the format where either friends or family are an option. However, I do realize that the questions are probably only phrased like this for reasons of specificity — which I understand.

Barbara’s case, which is discussed in the “social butterflies” section is unique, in my opinion, because her social support is associated with helping other people. I can see why the most evident benefit of social relationships comes from helping others, and I would personally agree, but I think that something else the researchers could consider is how these people who find joy in helping others are feeling, themselves. I know that in several cases, the people who are the most useful in helping others also happen to be depressed. I am not saying that this is the case with everyone, but I think it is a common occurrence that could be evaluated.

As for the finding that “pets do not provide the social enrichment that is so important to long life,” I disagree. I would appreciate if their actual data was provided, because this is a very common belief and I have also read many articles supporting this very phenomenon. I think this is something that depends on the case, because although it is true that an animal cannot hold a conversation with you, many people just need someone who will listen and that is exactly what a pet would typically do. Also, I believe that pets you can constantly interact with, such as a dog or a cat, provide just as much companionship as a person would, and maybe even more. Although they do not replace interaction with other humans, I do not see how or why “service” animals would be permitted if they did not provide people with social enrichment.

Chapter 13 was fascinating to me, I think because I have grown up hearing about the gender gap my entire life and, finally, I was reading something good about this gap — although, not necessarily good for men. The majority of times I have heard that women outlive men has been because men take more risks, or just generally engage in more dangerous behavior. The authors included several different examples to show the differences that exist between femininity and masculinity, which I appreciated, but I think the self-assessment in this chapter could have been more useful, had it provided more than just career options, because I really think this depends on the person and can vary greatly. I was surprised to read about how different widowed women are from widowed men, even if they loved their partners the same amount. For example, it was weird to me that a widowed woman lived even longer than a woman who remained married her whole life. Could it be that the authors are referring to women who were not happily married?

I can see why femininity was more protective than masculinity, but I am curious to see what research in the future, if any, can show why exactly women are so commonly outliving their male counterparts. It was reassuring to read that women are likely to thrive even after losing male figures, whether by divorce or by widowhood, even though these seem like very difficult life events to overcome. Lastly, I was shocked to discover that the anxiousness and worrying that follows the death of a spouse was actually beneficial to males who lost their spouses. I think my main takeaway from this chapter is that, more often than we are led to believe, loss is not that bad. It is, of course, terrible and tremendously difficult to deal with as we grieve, but it also makes us stronger, more considerate individuals and our reactions to it can even lead some of us to live longer lives.

Chapter 10 details how careers and success intertwine with the prevailing theme that conscientiousness is the key to longevity.  The chapter confirms that those who are more successful in their career are more likely to live a long life.  This makes sense from a socioeconomic standpoint, but on the other hand, it deviates from book’s tendency to equate stress with a shorter life.  When it comes to career success, the study showed that taking on more work and stress, if resulting in linear career progress, had a positive effect on life expectancy.   The chapter also mentioned that those who stayed productive also tended to be those who lived longer, which made me think of my ever busy grandfather, who even in retirement is one of the healthiest people I know and never allows himself to get lazy and will find something that needs to be done.  The chapter also tried to reassure college students that picking the perfect career for our personality is not the key to longevity, but since success and career satisfaction is, I am personally not any less nervous about the future.

Religion was the focus of chapter 11, and the findings generally summarize to religious women tend to have traits that lead to longevity, while men’s religious involvement was not a prominent enough factor to have a large effect.  This made me wonder much like I did with the gender disparity last week, is this difference the result of the time period?  The books continues to note that many of the women in the study didn’t have career’s due to the time period, and the time period also has a large effect on why the husband’s happiness is so important for the couple’s longevity and health.  Many religions outline the qualities and duties of a good wife and often those match the expectations of a wife during the time of the study, is there any correlation there? Or is it possible that the religious women, who had the combined traits that led to a long life, also have marital benefits from those traits?  The gender disparity in the chapter on marriage and that existing in the one on religion make me wonder if they are connected, since both chapters had very distinct gender differences for their entirety.

Similar to the theme in the previous 9 chapters, chapter 10 of this novel explains that people are heavily involved in long work hours or heavily involved at work are not necessarily prone to heart disease; rather it depends the stresses one faces and how they appraise and deal with those stresses. One critique I do have on the study done in Chapter 10 is that is limited to only one gender: men. Granted times have changed since the early to mid 1900’s, it needs to take into account both male and females, and even the LGBT community, in order to generalize the study to everyone reading this novel. Another major finding in this chapter was those with the more successful careers were the least likely to have a shorter life span. Taking into account another theme throughout the book; conscientiousness played a role in the more professionally successful individuals.

This chapter was intriguing to me as a graduating senior looking to start my career. This semester, I’ve have been in a constant internal battle of whether I should apply for jobs that are outside the golf industry or stick with what I know and have experience in, and apply for jobs within the golf industry. I want to expand my horizons, however when interviewing for jobs in the golf industry, I am more ambitious, passionate, and have a sense of mastery and accomplishment. Completing an interview this past week, I realized that I have a more clear idea and progression when it comes to working within the golfing industry. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but after my interview and reading this chapter, I may pivot from what I am currently doing and actively pursue positions within golf business administration. In the long run, I hope it does impact my mental and physical health in a positive way.

Next, chapter 11 touches on the subject of religiosity and the role it has on one’s longevity. Essentially it states that religious involvement isn’t what is important to a longer life, but rather the personality traits that are associated with being religious. Also similar to chapter 10, the findings were only significant in one gender, this time: women. The recurring theme and characteristic that seems to play a role and be associated with practicing religion is conscientiousness.

As someone who does not practice religion, but is a conscientious person, this chapter did not resonate with me as much.  I respect those that practice religion, however I am a firm believer of the psychological, social, and behavioral influences on health and well-being that religion may sometimes undermine the importance of. There are plenty of people who are healthy because they do not practice religion but take part in exercise, careers that stir passion, and have supporting relationships. This study doesn’t seem generalizable to me as the chapter is very vague and no specific details and statistics were mentioned.

Chapter 10 discusses stress and satisfaction in regards to one’s career. What the Terman Project showed is, in conjunction with other personality factors, individuals who had satisfaction and success in their line of career, no matter how much stress came with it, lived longer than individuals who were not as motivated. One reason this was so interesting to me is that I’m a very laid back individual especially when it comes to career goals, so this made me realize that I need to engage in a little more perseverance when faced with a challenge. Just because I think it would be difficult to complete medical school does not mean that I shouldn’t try if I think that I could excel in that field.

I was much less interested in Chapter 11 than with Chapter 10. While it had to do with a very interesting top (religiosity), the main finding was that there is less to do with one’s level of religiosity as it did with their individual characteristics. This seems to be a common theme in the book, so I don’t feel the need to go into it again.

Chapter 10 evaluated the effects of stress, success, and satisfaction in one’s career to the effect on how long you live. They found that those who were “successful” in their careers but as well as happy with their jobs lived longer than those who were not successful nor satisfied. They found that stress, not so much with the tasks they had to complete, but more with the stress that accompanies interpersonal relationships had more of a detrimental impact on one’s longevity. Additionally, they emphasized that intelligence does not guarantee a successful career. From this chapter, I concluded that stress does not matter if you love what you do. A life lesson that I will carry with me throughout my life is a simple one from my mom: If you love your work, then it will never feel like work. I strongly believe that. I hope to become a child psychologist, something that will take up to 11 years of school. This has never deterred me because, if at the end of all the stressful work, I am going home happy with my career choice then I am doing something right.

In Chapter 11, the researchers outlined how religion plays into longevity and health. Overall, they found that, for men, religion did not really have an impact on longevity. Yet, for women who were more religious, they lived long lives. They speculated that perhaps this was not due to a higher power dictating their lives but more due to the inclination for their actions to represent the practices of the Bible. For example, they were surrounded by a loving, supporting community and were less likely to be involved in bad activities like drugs, smoking, or drinking. I am not religious. I was raised Jewish but my family stressed the idea of the culture of religion rather than the actual practices. This means to follow the morals and respect the community of the religious even if I don’t believe the stories. This chapter reassured me in the aspect of maintaining these morals. It is ok that I don’t believe in this higher power but as long as I keep my morals, I’ll be ok.

Chapter 10 came to some unexpected conclusions for me. Before reading, I would have assumed that the stress of a high end career would have posed more stress than holding a lower end job. However, the Terman participants perfectly proved the enhancement hypothesis, which says that having meaningful work that builds self-esteem makes the stress of the work worth it. I also found it interesting that the harmful, mortality increasing stress didn’t seem to come from the work at all, but from the interactions with coworkers. This is particularly interesting to me because of the way the different indicators of longevity interact with one another. In college, we are taught leadership and social skills that help deal with this sort of coworker stress and inconvenience. However, being in college at all is an indicator of higher SES, which is also an indicator of longevity.

I found the conclusions of Chapter 11 to be unconvincing. Reducing religion to a set of personality traits and a community could be applied to many different hobbies or interests. For example, one could reduce all people who play lacrosse to a set of similar traits and use the team setting as a sort of congregation. I think this use of religion compared to longevity is a stretch by the authors, and like in previous chapters, it tries too hard to be impartial and inoffensive to actually prove a point.

Longevity Ch 10

Chapter 10 of The Longevity Project explores the relationship between career success and satisfaction and longevity. Overall, the chapter concludes that individuals with the most career success are least likely to die young, partly because they are more conscientious and resilient than their counterparts. As well, the authors assert that it is workplace stress arising from interpersonal conflict rather than demanding work itself that harms health. Although the authors focus on career success in men due to historical restrictions on female workplace opportunity, they hypothesize that results would be the same for women. Interestingly, when the chapter explores matches between individual type (artistic, realistic, investigative, social, enterprising and conventional) and occupational type, the authors find matches can be a risk factor, as personality predisposition and career reinforce unhealthy tendencies. As well,  older Terman participants that continued to be productive and motivated lived much longer than their counterparts, emphasizing the importance of prudence and perseverance. Overall, the chapter concludes that more important than education is personal motivation and career match is less significant than occupational accomplishment and fulfillment.

This chapter relates to my life as I often wonder about the tradeoff between stress and fulfillment in an occupation. However, it really rings true to me that work toxicity is less from demanding work itself than from harmful coworker interactions. For example, my mother works many hours on law appeal cases for the state of Connecticut, but loves her work and finds it immensely satisfying. This is largely because she gets along with everyone in her office and has a great relationship with her boss. This chapter also relates to me because I definitely agree that living one’s dreams isn’t a recipe for success compared to finding a career that allows for hard work and success.

Overall, this chapter makes me optimistic about my longevity because I am driven and goal-oriented. In this way, although I am often stressed, these characteristics and the resulting satisfaction from achievement will benefit my longevity.

Chapter 11

Chapter 11 considers the relationship between religion and longevity, beginning with findings that in the United States, religious people tend to be healthier and live longer than their counterparts. With the Terman participants, religiosity did not matter much for men but was clearly related to longevity for women. These women were close to their families, optimistic, less likely to use drugs and socially involved and outgoing. As well, the least religious women lived the shortest lives and were less extroverted, less likely to get and stay married and less likely to have children. Overall, the authors conclude that religious involvement itself is not important to long life but the community involvement and characteristics that go along with being religious. The authors also explain the lack of relationship between religion and health for Terman men as a result of the more important factors of their families and careers and the role of their wives in facilitating social ties.

This chapter relates to my mother as our synagogue is a huge part of her identity and social bonds. While I think her faith itself may benefit her health, friendships within our religious community and the role of our temple in allowing her to do service work seem to be the most beneficial aspects of her religiosity.

I am not particularly religious, so this chapter suggests a worse outcome for my longevity. However, I think religious observance is fluid over time and would guess it likely that at some point in the future I will become more involved. As well, because I find community involvement in other means, the communal aspect of religion is less relevant to me.

In Chapter 10, career success is analyzed in terms of its contribution to stress and longevity. Rather than the expected finding that high levels of career stress shorten life expectancy, the authors found that stress in careers was a much less important predictor than overall success in careers. This was especially true for people who found their careers rewarding, who were ambitious and correspondingly very accomplished, and who were extremely productive even into old age. The pursuit of goals, coupled with a conscientious and persevering personality, turned out to be very beneficial. As usual, personality and the behavior patterns that resulted from personality were far more of a determinant than expected.

I really do appreciate this finding, because it’s one that I think will be very relevant to my career. As someone who wants to pursue a career in medicine, specifically surgery, I know that I will be putting in many long hours and experiencing a good deal of stress throughout the duration of my career. I fully expect that it will be fulfilling, though, and I think I have the motivation, perseverance, and conscientiousness to make the most of it. It’s definitely nice to know that pursuing a high stress career may not necessarily worsen my health outcomes in the long-term, and that I have more control over how my career affects my health than I realized.

Chapter 11 focuses on the influence that religion has in life expectancy. Generally, they found that religiously-inclined people tended to live longer than those with no religiosity. This was more true for women than for men. However, the authors again found that the individual characteristics and behavioral patterns were more important; essentially, people who were religious tended to be so because of predisposing traits that made them well-suited for religion, and those traits were what was critical to longevity. The community engagement aspect of a religious community is important and helpful, but the authors did mention that maintaining close ties in other ways could be just as protective.

These findings make sense to me, and I feel pretty neutral overall about the chapter. I am not religiously inclined, though I do appreciate many of the morals and values that being raised with religion gave me. I was raised Catholic but I chose not to get confirmed, because I disagreed with so many of the then-foundational stances held by the Catholic church. It was a bit of a scandal, funnily enough, and I’m still the only person in my entire extended family not to be confirmed. But it suits me. I am a spiritual person, just not someone that finds the community and ritual of organized religion especially rewarding. So I generally just pray on my own and do my best to live in a way that’s considerate of others. I suppose this chapter showed me that being non-religious likely won’t have any impact on my health–I’ll have to find social ties and community elsewhere.