where is the love? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Steven Sust   
Monday, 11 January 2010 12:26

where_is_the_love_blackeyedpeas_croWhile sniffing through yahoo news, I ran across this article highlighting a psych review of MMPI data from 1938 to 2007. For those not in the know, the infamous MMPI is a ~500 question multiple-choice test and one of the more highly validated personality measures that clinical psychology has had in its arsenal. MMPI results interpretation can be complex and something i've learned to leave for the neuropsychologists for their expert opinion.
However I digress. Not surprisingly(to me at least), the study found an increase in many measures of mental health problems such as psychopathic deviation, hypomania, and paranoia(just to name a few) in their study population of college and high school students. In trying to sit down and interpret their results, I think the authors summarize it best with the following quote: 

"These results suggest that as American culture has increasingly valued extrinsic and self-centered goals such as money and status, while increasingly devaluing community, affiliation, and finding meaning in life, the mental health of American youth has suffered. It is of course possible, and likely, that there are other factors behind the dramatic increases in psychopathology. However, these results are consistent with the theorizing of several authors arguing that materialism, individualism, and impossibly high expectations have led to an epidemic of poor mental health in the U.S. and other Western nations ([Eckersley and Dear, 2002], [Kasser, 2003], [Myers, 2000] and [Seligman, 1990])"

 

 

It's an interesting social dilemma to think about. The rat race is that constant drive to accumulate more and better materials than the next person in an attempt to stem that feeling of isolation/abandonment and maybe increase social status by garnering societal envy over the security or exclusivity of your material accumulation. Nowadays, ubiquitous riches are teasingly depicted in front of our televisions, periodicals, and lives, but are usually only obtainable by a select minority. It's possible that we're enforcing upon each other this idea of success in which we need to work SUPER hard to become wealthy even though there is a finite money supply that relatively few people ever accumulate enough of which to be considered wealthy.

So in essence, only a few people ever get to be wealthy and happy like the media depicts, but we tell anyone and everyone that they could be one of the few if they work and try hard enough? Sneaky....
I guess in the grand scheme of things, selling the dream of more money and a consequently better life does yield a productive populace, but how long can we pile people into this fray? If history gives any sort of indication then indefinitely.
Is it possible that you can only dangle a carrot on a string in front of a beast of burden for so long before it gets jaded, depressed, and suicidal with the futility of it all? It's not always suicide...
Are we as a society really putting way too much emphasis on accumulating tons of money as the end-point measure for success thus setting up our kids for failure which then in turn leads to despair? Who knows... The study makes no firm solutions and only goes so far as to say that there are more mental health concerns in our young which suggests an increasing need for commensurate mental health services.

Maybe we should just stop worrying about what other people think of us and just do what makes each of us happy? However that might decrease the number of drones entering the race and cripple the hidden profits within the cycle of people chasing towards the American dream. Plus, that would require us knowing what makes us happy and I don't think enough people have really stepped away from the race to know, but that's a question to bring up with your psychologist or psychiatrist.

/steps off soap box
Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 January 2010 11:26