Self Improvement Might Sound Healthy. But There ’s a Downside to Wanting to Change

Ours is a culture that values change. Millions of Americans set resolutions each winter and buy self-help books year round. But a new study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science finds there’s also value in aiming to stay the same. People who imagine staying fairly constant over the years may have more satisfying lives than those who think they’ll grow to be different, according to the study. “When people think about themselves over time, the people who perceive there to be the most similarity between who they are now and who they will be in the future end up being more satisfied with their lives in 10 years time,” says study co-author Hal Hershfield, an associate professor of marketing at the University of California Los Angeles Anderson School of Management. The study was based on data from almost 5,000 adults who took the Midlife Development in the United States survey. In the 1990s, when people were ages 20 to 75, they answered questions about their current personality traits — how calm, caring, wise, willing to learn, energetic and knowledgeable they were — and how they thought those traits might change over the coming decade. They also answered questions about how satisfied they were with their work, health, relationships and life overall. A decade later, they answered similar questions again. After comparing the results and adjusting for factors such as age, gender, income and education, the researcher...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Mental Health/Psychology Source Type: news