Forlorn
The Effect of Stress on Later-Life Health: Evidence from the Vietnam Draft
John Cawley, Damien de Walque & Daniel Grossman
NBER Working Paper, April 2017
Abstract:
A substantial literature has examined the impact of stress during early childhood on later-life health. This paper contributes to that literature by examining the later-life health impact of stress during adolescence and early adulthood, using a novel proxy for stress: risk of military induction during the Vietnam War. We estimate that a 10 percentage point (2 standard deviation) increase in induction risk in young adulthood is associated with a 1.5 percentage point (8%) increase in the probability of being obese and a 1 percentage point (10%) increase in the probability of being in fair or poor health later in life. This does not appear to be due to cohort effects; these associations exist only for men who did not serve in the war, and are not present for women or men who did serve. These findings add to the evidence on the lasting consequences of stress, and also indicate that induction risk during Vietnam may, in certain contexts, be an invalid instrument for education or marriage because it appears to have a direct impact on health.
Why life speeds up: Chunking and the passage of autobiographical time
Mark Landau et al.
Self and Identity, forthcoming
Abstract:
Time seems to speed up as one ages, and it affects how people find meaning in life and plan their future. What creates this perception? We examine the role of "chunking" - mentally bundling individual moments of experience under broad categories. With age, people group experiences into progressively bigger chunks (e.g., work, family). Consequently, fewer things seem to have occurred in a given period, so it seems to have passed faster in retrospect. Supporting this account, three studies (overall N = 324) show that people led to chunk (vs. not chunk) their past year perceived it as passing faster. The effect of chunking emerged reliably across converging operations and specifically accelerated the chunked period, not other periods. Furthermore, chunking increased the appeal of nostalgia, suggesting that processes that accelerate time instigate a compensatory urge to reflect on momentous occasions of one's life. Implications for the "self across time" are discussed.
Autistic features in the general population: Implications for sensing purpose in life
Kaylin Ratner & Anthony Burrow
Journal of Positive Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Purpose in life has been discussed as a psychosocial process in which individuals construct their life aims in relation to other people. Consequently, difficulty attending to social cues could limit the extent to which individuals feel purposeful. The present study (N = 252) examined links between subclinical autistic features found in the general population and perceived purpose in life. Results showed that autistic features were negatively associated with purpose even after accounting for age, gender, positive mood, and dispositions in Big 5 personality traits. Findings are discussed in terms of directions for future research aimed at elucidating the mechanisms that may explain the observed associations. In completing this study, it is hoped that the present findings can be utilized as groundwork for the investigation of psychosocial development in special populations.
Frontal-Brainstem Pathways Mediating Placebo Effects on Social Rejection
Leonie Koban et al.
Journal of Neuroscience, 29 March 2017, Pages 3621-3631
Abstract:
Placebo treatments can strongly affect clinical outcomes, but research on how they shape other life experiences and emotional well-being is in its infancy. We used fMRI in humans to examine placebo effects on a particularly impactful life experience, social pain elicited by a recent romantic rejection. We compared these effects with placebo effects on physical (heat) pain, which are thought to depend on pathways connecting prefrontal cortex and periaqueductal gray (PAG). Placebo treatment, compared with control, reduced both social and physical pain, and increased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in both modalities. Placebo further altered the relationship between affect and both dlPFC and PAG activity during social pain, and effects on behavior were mediated by a pathway connecting dlPFC to the PAG, building on recent work implicating opioidergic PAG activity in the regulation of social pain. These findings suggest that placebo treatments reduce emotional distress by altering affective representations in frontal-brainstem systems.