In the history of science, there have been some very long experimental studies.For example, the University of Queensland's asphalt drip experiment, which was reported in the media two years ago and caused a lot of controversy, began in 1927.In agriculture, there are many such experiments.There are even hundreds of years of experimental research.
Robert J. Waldinger, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and born in 1951 at Massachusetts General Hospital Dr. Waldinger is in charge of a research project older than him.This is known as the Grant Study.
The study began in 1937.
In the 1930s, a doctor named Arlie V Bock became the head of Harvard Medical School.It was he who, along with William Thomas Grant, then a wealthy retail chain, conceived the study.According to Dr. Bowker, medical research has focused a lot of attention on people who develop organic lesions.He believes that this method of research, which "only sees trees, not forests," will never be able to understand how people live and live better.Dr. Bowker's study selected a good set of subjects—a group of Harvard undergraduates—to track whether and how these elites became "winners in life.""That combination of sentiments and physical factors which are common interpreted as successful living."
With good intentions, Dr. Bowker organized an interdisciplinary team of researchers across a wide range of fields: medicine, physiology, anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, and social work.He also brought in academic tycoons as advisors, including the famous Adolf Meyer (1866–1950, Taishan Beidou, who had a huge impact on psychiatry throughout the 20th century; the first head of psychology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, who was president of the American Psychiatric Association).Based on medical records, academic performance, and recommendations from Harvard University's dean, the team selected 268 students (mainly undergraduates in 1943 and 44).The researchers thought their subjects were perfect: they were students at America's best universities, all white men, physically fit, mentally healthy, and academically good.
The researchers first examined the young men in detail, then sent them regular questionnaires, interviewed them, and arranged for a psychiatrist to talk to them for a long time.The researchers used a state-of-the-art EEG machine to analyze traces of their personality traits, including privacy issues such as when the young men stopped wetting their beds and how their sexuality education was obtained.
Long-span studies are, after all, a minority.The high demand for funding and the urgent need for research results often prompt researchers to close the project as soon as possible.So did Mr. Grant, who, after about a decade of perseverance, thought it would be a bottomless pit, even though the team had published many scientific papers and books.Then the project changed hands several times, and the fate was very bad.However, the researchers did everything they could to persevere.
Time flows slowly like this.By the time the subjects reached their middle age, the researchers had a huge amount of information: many of the young people had great career success.Four of them ran for Congress, one entered the cabinet, one became an influential bestselling author, and one became president of the United States.But in stark contrast, it is the misfortune that occurs in the lives of others.By 1948, 20 people had experienced or had experienced mental problems.By the time they were 50, almost one-third of the participants had experienced more than one mental illness.
Alongside Grant's research project, there is a project called the Glueck Study.Originally led by Sheldon Glueck (1896–1980), a Harvard professor and Polish-American criminologist, the project involved 456 young people born into poor families near Boston.After the completion of the project, the Grant Project also included these young people in the study.
The Grant project is back in the spotlight in the United States thanks to Dr. Waldinger's predecessor, George Vailant, a Harvard University professor and psychiatrist affiliated with Brigham and Women's Hospital.Based on Grant's research, he published three books.His first book, published in 1977, tells the conclusions of his studies up to the age of 47; the second, published more than 20 years later, introduces the conclusions of his studies into old age; and the third, our most recent Triumphs of Experience, published in 2012.The book was well received, and readers gave it a 4.1/5 rating on Amazon's book-sharing social network, Goodreads.
As a scientific research, the number of scientific papers produced by the Grant project is enormous.So what are the main findings, as of Dr. Verlander, that have been translated into languages that are easy for ordinary people to understand?Here are some summaries:
The economic success of the subjects depends mainly on having a good relationship with the people around them (the original expression is "warmth of relationships"), and to a certain extent, it has little to do with intelligence.Specifically, those who scored the highest on the "warm relationship" indicator had the highest annual salary significantly above average.There was no significant difference in income between people with IQs between 110 and 115 and those with IQs above 150.
Good childhood relationships with mothers had a significant impact on later adult life: children with good relationships with mothers earned an average of $87,000 a year more; children with poor relationships with mothers were more likely to develop mental illness.A good relationship with the mother had little to do with life satisfaction at age 75.
Associated with good relationships with fathers in childhood were lower anxiety in adulthood, satisfaction with vacations, and life satisfaction at age 75.
Professor Wilant's main conclusion is that the warmth of relationships has the greatest impact on life satisfaction.Or simply, "Happiness is love."Happiness is love. The answer to "full stop" is surprisingly simple and irrefutable.
Of course, because the times have been changing, the subjects' living environment, cultural environment, material conditions are constantly changing.Some conclusions may therefore be subject to conditions at the time.For example, according to Grant's study, alcohol is the leading cause of divorce between the study subjects and their wives.It is well known that the consumption of alcohol in the United States has historically been alarming and has become a social problem.In the 1950s and 1960s, drinking in the office was still a fashion.If you analyze the causes of divorce in today's society, I am afraid that alcohol plays a much smaller role.
As described at the beginning of this article, the project is now being conducted by Professor Waldinger as part of his research at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Study of Adult Development.But decades later, most of those young people died.Maybe this project is going to be finalized?No, the curiosity of scientists is endless, and they have launched a research project called Harvard the second generation study, which decides to continue research on the descendants of Grant's subjects.They estimate that Project Grant's study involved about 2,000 second-generation people scattered across the United States.This large group will undoubtedly explain more and more interesting discoveries for us.