003 Midlife Crisis

Midlife Crisis

 

A new study shows that unhappiness in middle age, also known as midlife crisis, is a universal experience. Two economists did the study: Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England and David Blanchflower at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. They used information collected earlier on two million people from eighty nations.

 

They found that people around the world seem to share an emotional design in life. That design, they say, is shaped like the letter U. Levels of happiness are highest when people are young and when they are old. In the middle, however, most people's happiness and life satisfaction levels drop.

 

Professor Oswald says some people suffer from midlife depression more than others. But, he says, it happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor and to those with and without children.

 

Generally speaking, people reach their lowest levels between the ages of about forty and fifty-five. But then, as they continue into old age, their happiness starts to climb back up. What the research does not show is why all this happens. Professor Oswald says one possibility is that people recognize their limitations in middle age and give up on some long-held dreams.

 

参考译文：

一项新研究表明“中年不幸”，也就是我们所知的“中年危机”是所有人都要经历的.英国华威大学的Andrew Oswald和美国新罕布什尔达特茅斯学院的David Blanchflower两位经济学家用早期自80个国家，200万人调查收集的信息做了这项调查。

他们发现似乎全世界的人都共有一个情感化设计的人生。他们说，在这个设计中，人生的形状就像字母“U”。 当人们年轻和步入老年时，他们的幸福感最强。而在中年，多数人的幸福感和对生活的满意度都会下降。

Oswald教授说一些人会比其他人遭受更多的中年消沉。但是，他说，无论男女，婚否，贫富，有无子女，这段中年危机人人都会遭遇。

一般来说，人们大约会在40-45岁就会遭遇幸福感的最低落时期。但是随着他们逐渐步入老年，他们的幸福感又开始回升。这项研究没有表示出发生这一切的原因是什么。Oswald教授说一个可能原因是：人们在中年时开始认识到自己的局限性并且开始放弃一些长期坚持的梦想。