Why are millennials so miserable?

[Betty Blue]

He may be orienting his advice from an internal locus of control angle, whereas blaming external forces contributes to an external locus of control. Various studies have shown time and time again that an internal locus of control leads to significantly more happiness than an external one. I'd argue that he doesn't 'want' to blame the individuals, but rather he is suggesting that if they blamed themselves more- not less- they would be better on their way towards solving their own problems. The science backs this 100%, and it counters just about every one of your points in a broader context.

The bolded is a generalised nonsensical claim.

 

[anticlimatic]

The bolded is a generalised nonsensical claim.

Calling something "generalized" as in "produced by and applicable to a general majority" is the opposite of an attack on an idea, just FYI. It actually more 'generally' supports its validity.

All I was saying was that 100% of any scientific studies or other empirical data I've found on the subject backs that point, which is a statistically impressive ratio worthy of note IMO. If you have something contrarian to what I've found, I'd be happy to hear it:


The No. 1 Contributor to Happiness | Psychology Today

A one-way analysis of variance comparing the meanscores of happiness and creative ideation for those ident-ified with internal LOC versus those identified withexternal LOC scores was performed. A significant differ-ence, F(1,170) ¼ 6.49, p ¼ .01, partial g2¼ .037, wasfound between the mean happiness scores of the twogroups. Those identified as internal LOC (M ¼ 100.1,SD ¼ 16.9) had significantly higher OHI scores thanthose identified as having external LOC (M ¼ 93.8,SD ¼ 15.6).

(PDF) Happiness, Creative Ideation, and Locus of Control. Available from: (PDF) Happiness, Creative Ideation, and Locus of Control [accessed Dec 15 2018].

The hypothesis was tested that individuals with higher feelings of internal control are happier than those with higher feelings of external control. Two kinds of single scales of happiness and a multiple scale of happiness were adopted. The multiple scale was a happiness questionnaire that consisted of the following 4 factors: feeling of fullness for one's life, positive prospects for one's own future, stress-buffer, and self-agreement. Analyses were also conducted for every gender and academic year. Results support the hypothesis.

http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1994-25372-001

Judge and his colleagues (2001, 2002) investigated the empirical overlap among self-esteem, locus of control, self-efficacy, and emotional stability, and they conclude that "these traits are indistinct measures of the same core trait," which they refer to as core self-evaluations (Judge & Bono, 2001; p. 108; Judge, Erez, Bono, & Thoreson, 2002).

(PDF) Locus of control, feeling of happiness and self-esteem: interrelation analysis Ivanna Shubina. Available from: (PDF) Locus of control, feeling of happiness and self-esteem: interrelation analysis Ivanna Shubina [accessed Dec 15 2018].

 

[hjgbujhghg]

I actually made a research about this topic and spoke to few psychologists for professional purposes. Most professionals believe that the young people of today have to face much higher levels of stress than the older generations, and that's mostly because of work. Companies accept way too much from young people and force them to work over time only because they're yet not experienced and financially secure enough to call out their boss if something's wrong. Most young people are willing to do almost anything to get a promotion or to make their boss notice them and give them positive feedback for the sheer purpose of building up their resume and employers are aware of this. Young people feel an extreme pressure to be successful, better than their friends, classmates, they're competitive, ambitious and often push themselves to the edge.

Those who are more sensitive or fearful and can't compete as much as others still often feel need to success and then they feel miserable if they can't perform as well as the others. On the other hand the ones who perform way too much and go beyond their limits at work often suffer in personal life and vice verse.

People should find a healthy balance between work and personal life and lower their expectations, because everyone wants to be successful and famous today, because we millennials believe we're all bunch of special snowflakes, but the truth is...most of us aren't and some of us have to be stuck in less important jobs than the others.

Also the fact that most of us study or have jobs that force us to sit and work mentally most of the time is a huge issue. We don't exercise and we don't take a proper care of our body while we over work our minds.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Btw .....


Can we really say that older generations are much happier at this point ?

 

[tinker683]

Btw .....


Can we really say that older generations are much happier at this point ?

This is actually something I would like to hear feedback on. My own observations are that a lot of older folks seem every bit as pessimistic as they proport millennials to be.

As for me, as a card carrying member of Gen Y, I'd just like to say: I'm not miserable, but I am getting awfully tired of older folks blaming everything on my generation when their generation is the one that taught us/raised us/has been running things before us. It's tiresome.

 

[Betty Blue]

Calling something "generalized" as in "produced by and applicable to a general majority" is the opposite of an attack on an idea, just FYI. It actually more 'generally' supports its validity.

All I was saying was that 100% of any scientific studies or other empirical data I've found on the subject backs that point, which is a statistically impressive ratio worthy of note IMO. If you have something contrarian to what I've found, I'd be happy to hear it:


The No. 1 Contributor to Happiness | Psychology Today

From what I can see it's linked with political ideology, wealth and privilege. Psychologically this makes a lot of sense.

E.g (In general) A rich white American man will naturally feel like he has a greater control over his own life than a poor African American Woman.

Essentially locus of control seems to be dealing with an after effect of privilege. This imo is true, it's also another excuse to blame those who are less fortunate in their life choices/chances.

 

[ceecee]

This is actually something I would like to hear feedback on. My own observations are that a lot of older folks seem every bit as pessimistic as they proport millennials to be.

As for me, as a card carrying member of Gen Y, I'd just like to say: I'm not miserable, but I am getting awfully tired of older folks blaming everything on my generation when their generation is the one that taught us/raised us/has been running things before us. It's tiresome.

It's not even just older folk although, the Boomers blaming Millennials for everything is ridiculous but - who's been on this planet longer? Who has had much more time to fuck things up (and they have)? I truly do not get the hatred for the young and for Boomers the ability to nakedly say - I got mine, fuck you - show exactly how privileged they have been since birth - more than any generation. However, they are aiming that blame and hate at anyone younger, including my Gen X self, it's just not as widely reported. It's not only a US thing, this is happening in the UK and Europe as well.

As far as their happiness is concerned, no. I know a few Boomers/elderly that are happy. Gen X'ers like myself, many are happy but I think that's due to being nearly invisible most of our lives, just how I like it.

 

[anticlimatic]

From what I can see it's linked with political ideology, wealth and privilege. Psychologically this makes a lot of sense.

E.g (In general) A rich white American man will naturally feel like he has a greater control over his own life than a poor African American Woman.

Essentially locus of control seems to be dealing with an after effect of privilege. This imo is true, it's also another excuse to blame those who are less fortunate in their life choices/chances.

I can see how that would make a lot of sense to you, but it's not quite aligned with the science. If it was linked to ideology, wealth, and privilege- and it was product of such- then there would be no depressed people who were wealthy and privileged, which is not the case at all. Wealthy people, especially people inheriting wealth, can have just as little control over their own lives as people at the bottom with nothing. I guarantee a rich white man who is trapped at his high paying high stress job by lifestyle standards, helplessly unable to take care of himself in basic ways (like cooking and cleaning), and isolated from his family by years of passive aggression and alcoholism does not naturally feel as though he has a greater control over his own life than a poor African American woman who knows fine and well how to take care of herself with whatever little she has available to her.

Locus of control is not linked to privilege in any way and there is zero scientific evidence for such. External locus of control (the type you are arguing for here), has however been linked with creative idealization though. In other words, there is a slight link in ideology here based on evidence, but it's not a specific ideology. It seems just being creatively idealistic- which could translate into creative idealism for society or a future society- whether from the right or from the left, lends a sense to the self that external forces have more control over us than internal ones. This seemed counter intuitive to me, but made sense the more I thought about it.

So, just to recap those studies I posted: internal locus of control has nothing directly to do with wealth or privilege, it is a deep type of psychological orientation- similar to sexuality- but hopefully more malleable, that can be used to bolster autonomy, which in turn has a direct link to happiness. That is the extent of the linkage to happiness discovered by the scientific community, though I haven't yet discussed 'natural' vs 'synthetic' happiness which is another very interesting and counter intuitive set of studies on the concept.

 

[ceecee]

From what I can see it's linked with political ideology, wealth and privilege. Psychologically this makes a lot of sense.

E.g (In general) A rich white American man will naturally feel like he has a greater control over his own life than a poor African American Woman.

Essentially locus of control seems to be dealing with an after effect of privilege. This imo is true, it's also another excuse to blame those who are less fortunate in their life choices/chances.

Americans as a group hate the poor. They see being poor as being a choice entirely (children included) and because of that there is little push back when poverty is criminalized and punished. But do you notice that the only people that bring up privilege are the people who have the most privilege? And that's why they will vehemently tell you they have little to no privilege because because it's been systematically stripped from them and given to the undeserving. It always amazed me that there are people that think equality is a finite resource.

 

[anticlimatic]

But do you notice that the only people that bring up privilege are the people who have the most privilege?.

I've definitely noticed.

 

[anticlimatic]

This is actually something I would like to hear feedback on. My own observations are that a lot of older folks seem every bit as pessimistic as they proport millennials to be.

As for me, as a card carrying member of Gen Y, I'd just like to say: I'm not miserable, but I am getting awfully tired of older folks blaming everything on my generation when their generation is the one that taught us/raised us/has been running things before us. It's tiresome.

Well life gets worse the older you get. If you're an old person who can't get it up without viagra, with a thousand aches and pains every morning, whose best years are long behind them, and everyone you ever looked up to and respected throughout your life is dead, and death is the next thing you get to look forward to- I'd say being "as" happy or miserable as someone in their 20s is pretty impressive on its own.

 

[Cellmold]

A little from column A & a little from....

 

[Betty Blue]

I can see how that would make a lot of sense to you, but it's not quite aligned with the science. If it was linked to ideology, wealth, and privilege- and it was product of such- then there would be no depressed people who were wealthy and privileged, which is not the case at all. Wealthy people, especially people inheriting wealth, can have just as little control over their own lives as people at the bottom with nothing. I guarantee a rich white man who is trapped at his high paying high stress job by lifestyle standards, helplessly unable to take care of himself in basic ways (like cooking and cleaning), and isolated from his family by years of passive aggression and alcoholism does not naturally feel as though he has a greater control over his own life than a poor African American woman who knows fine and well how to take care of herself with whatever little she has available to her.

Locus of control is not linked to privilege in any way and there is zero scientific evidence for such. External locus of control (the type you are arguing for here), has however been linked with creative idealization though. In other words, there is a slight link in ideology here based on evidence, but it's not a specific ideology. It seems just being creatively idealistic- which could translate into creative idealism for society or a future society- whether from the right or from the left, lends a sense to the self that external forces have more control over us than internal ones. This seemed counter intuitive to me, but made sense the more I thought about it.

So, just to recap those studies I posted: internal locus of control has nothing directly to do with wealth or privilege, it is a deep type of psychological orientation- similar to sexuality- but hopefully more malleable, that can be used to bolster autonomy, which in turn has a direct link to happiness. That is the extent of the linkage to happiness discovered by the scientific community, though I haven't yet discussed 'natural' vs 'synthetic' happiness which is another very interesting and counter intuitive set of studies on the concept.

Just to put a spanner in your 100% science backing this up claim..... (there are more studies, this was the first peer reviewed study that came up on a google search)


"African Americans report more external locus of control than non-Hispanic Whites, and external locus of control is associated with poorer health and cognition."

External locus of control contributes to racial disparities in memory and reasoning training gains in ACTIVE

 

[Jaguar]

I've definitely noticed.

What is the gender of that angry person?

 

[anticlimatic]

Just to put a spanner in your 100% science backing this up claim..... (there are more studies, this was the first peer reviewed study that came up on a google search)


"African Americans report more external locus of control than non-Hispanic Whites, and external locus of control is associated with poorer health and cognition."

External locus of control contributes to racial disparities in memory and reasoning training gains in ACTIVE

All this does is reinforce the fact that an external locus of control is bad. I don't understand what this contradicts, or what it has to do with my point other than that.

If you don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about and are just googling "confirmation bias + accredited study" you should probably study up more yourself before debating.

- - - Updated - - -

What is the gender of that angry person?

He's a
FUCKING
WHITE
MALE!!!

 

[Jaguar]

- - - Updated - - -



He's a
FUCKING
WHITE
MALE!!!

He needs to chill the fuck out and get a drink at Starbucks.

 

[Betty Blue]

All this does is reinforce the fact that an external locus of control is bad. I don't understand what this contradicts, or what it has to do with my point other than that.

If you don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about and are just googling "confirmation bias + accredited study" you should probably study up more yourself before debating.

- - - Updated - - -



He's a
FUCKING
WHITE
MALE!!!

Classic immature response when threatened is an attempt to personally discredit anyone who disagrees with you.

I can see the bigger picture here, have seen it before, it's a pattern. I was just highlighting your 100% science nonsense.

 

[anticlimatic]

Classic immature response when threatened is an attempt to personally discredit anyone who disagrees with you. I can see the bigger picture here, have seen it before, it's a pattern. I was just highlighting your 100% science nonsense.

Nothing in this post makes any sense. Like absolutely nothing. Pick any word or combination of words therein and explain...?

"classic?" "Immature response?" "Threatened?" "Bigger picture?" "Science nonsense?" ????????

 

[Jaguar]

Nothing in this post makes any sense. Like absolutely nothing. Pick any word or combination of words therein and explain...?

"classic?" "Immature response?" "Threatened?" "Bigger picture?" "Science nonsense?" ????????

The person is telling you that when you disagree with a position, you post red herring bullshit in return.

 

[anticlimatic]

The person is telling you that when you disagree with a position, you post red herring bullshit in return.

Kind of you to assist. Do elaborate on this "red herring bullshit."