In a recent issue of Atlantic Magazine, Joshua Shenk (Shenk 2009) has a riveting article that reviews a study that followed 268 Harvard graduates over the last 72 years. The original aim of the study was to determine which factors were essential to a full and successful life. The study began in the late 1930’s and followed these men through their war service, marriage, careers, parent and grandparenthood, old age or until their death. Initially they were given a wide battery of tests, questionnaires, and interviews. The funding for the study eventually gave out. But 42 years ago the study was revived by psychiatrist George Vaillant, who has been in charge of the investigation ever since. Valliant has continued to personally regularly interview the surviving participants.

While many of the participants did well, including US President Kennedy, others did not. But the major finding of the study is that the life course of an individual is almost impossible to predict. Human beings are extraordinarily complex as is the world we live in. Nonetheless two things stand out in the lives of those participants who had the most productive and happy lives. Perhaps the most important of these is what we have known for a long time. Regardless of life circumstance, those who did best have someone who loved them deeply and made them feel that they were important in that person’s life. A similar message comes from the life histories of those who have risen from poverty such as Oprah Winfrey and Dolly Parton.

Another finding comes from a parallel longitudinal study, undertaken at about the same time, to determine the causes of delinquency. A group of delinquents were paired with a comparable group of non-delinquent boys from working class, largely immigrant families. Valiant took over this study and has been following as many of the non-delinquent men that he and his colleagues could find. Among these men from low income families one of the determining factors in their successful occupational and family lives was having worked, or engaged in organized team sports, as a teenager. Both of these seemed to teach a work ethic that was carried forward into adult life.

These two findings seem to support what Freud said in answer to the question as to what was most necessary to live a full and happy life. He replied “Lieben und Arbeitien,” loving and working. But as I read some of the interviews, it seemed to me that a third factor was also at work. Those who succeeded did not take themselves too seriously and had a sense of humor. So I believe that we need to add “spielen”, play, to love and work as the necessary components to a full, productive and happy life.

-----------------
Shenk, J. w. (2009). "What Makes Us Happy?" The Atlantic 303(5): 36-53.