Psychologists Research The Roller-Coaster Of Life, UK

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 02 Sep 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Everyone has their ups and downs, but psychologists presenting their research at the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Conference at Oxford Brookes University held on the 2 September 2008, have discovered that for many of us, the highs and lows of the roller-coaster of life may run along very similar tracks.

Psychologists from The Open University surveyed more than 16,000 people aged from eight to 85 to look for patterns in psychological wellbeing across the human life span and the sexes.

Participants filled out online questionnaires measuring their self-esteem, optimism and whether they felt life was in their own control, or the control of external forces. These factors are all known to be important dimensions of psychological functioning.

Professor David Messer, said: "We found some really interesting patterns across our sample. When we looked at measures of self-esteem we found that children aged eight and nine had high levels of self-esteem and optimism, but this dipped in adolescence. Sixteen and 17 year olds had the lowest levels of self-esteem and 14 to 21 year olds the lowest levels of optimism. Levels of self-esteem and optimism climbed back up reaching a peak in the late thirties. The 34 to 39 year old age group in our study had the highest levels. Self-esteem dipped again after 50, especially in men, although over the entire life span men had significantly higher self-esteem than women."

The researchers also looked at who people felt was in the driving seat across their life span, and found that feelings of control also shifted across the different age groups. In this sample they saw that children had high levels of external control, reflecting the control of their parents. Into adulthood, respondents felt in control of their own lives - they had high levels of internal control. However in later adulthood feelings then shifted back to external control with the 50 to 53 year old age group having the highest levels of external control across the whole sample. They also found that women more than men felt that their lives were dictated by external factors.

John Oates, co-author of the study, said: "The patterns of self esteem, optimism and feelings of control from childhood through to old age that emerged from our research are really interesting. Many of these patterns can be explained by changes in education, career building, family and social life and cultural values that most of us in this country experience.

"Although of course individuals have their ups and downs due to personal circumstances, these highs and lows of our psychological wellbeing may actually be fairly consistent and predictable. You could say that although we are all in our own seats and experiencing different rides, we're all on the same rollercoaster."

This data was collected from a predominantly British sample of people who had accessed web pages related to the popular BBC television documentary Child of Our Time.

British Psychological Society