“Relax, avoid stress, don’t work so hard, sit back…” Such statements and advice are common when it comes to healthy living. However, there is no scientific evidence to confirm this. On the contrary, the above advice can pose serious dangers to health. Leaving an interesting and demanding job where one feels successful and settling down in a resort town or Bodrum and joining a group where one spends one’s time playing golf or bridge are choices that are more likely to cause harm than to bring the expected ease and freshness to life.
Scientists have seen that rats confined to a crowded cage and forced to struggle get sick due to stress, and thought that the same could be true for humans. But it is grossly inaccurate to infer from this that “what is good for mice will be good for humans”. Most of the studies that draw this conclusion examine a limited number of variables such as age, working time, gender. However, beyond these variables, many other factors such as competence in one’s job and job satisfaction are also determinants of health.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
It is very common in science to draw conclusions about humans from experiments with mice. Some of these results do indeed provide valuable clues about humans. For example, the relationship between learning and reward and punishment is similar in humans and mice. However, humans and mice are very different in terms of brain function and social interactions. There is no direct evidence that busy work schedules increase stress and suppress the immune system, or that long working hours cause heart disease (1). To establish such a relationship, two questions need to be answered:
Is it true that people who work hard, face many obstacles, achieve high status and spend years in demanding positions suffer more health problems and die earlier?
How does having a career that matches one’s inclinations and abilities affect one’s health and life expectancy?
In order to answer these questions, it may be useful to look at the characteristics of the Terman group2. Terman was closely and in detail interested in the future success and professional lives of his research group of bright and talented children. (Those interested in the research and the Terman Group can read the appendix at the bottom of the article).
Career success does not guarantee a long life
The data of seven hundred of the men in the Terman study group were analyzed fifty years later. Twenty percent of the men were rated as very successful, 20% as unsuccessful, and the remainder as moderately successful. Two of the characteristics evaluated as success criteria are as follows: Having a profession such as doctor, engineer, chemist; being listed in the “Who is Who?” almanac. However, there are also those with higher education and professions, such as chemists, teachers and engineers, who are rated as unsuccessful. Those of lower status included bakers, postmen, janitors, porters, and wagon drivers. It should not be forgotten that these people also have the level of intelligence required to have a higher status profession. As a result of the evaluation, the following picture emerged:
- Among those who were successful in their professions, no one died at a young age.
- Those who were very successful lived on average five years longer than those who were unsuccessful.
- Those who were moderately successful lived shorter than those who were very successful and longer than those who were unsuccessful (2).
It has long been known that there is a relationship between economic income level and life expectancy. However, since Terman’s research group was mostly from upper middle and middle income families, the relationship between achievement level and life expectancy was found, not with income level. At this point, the personality factor gains importance. Because “cautiousness” (attentive, careful, responsible, watching the consequences of one’s work, thinking first and acting later), which is one of the 5 basic traits in personality, shows a strong relationship with longevity. The same trait is also predictive of occupational success. But more importantly, there is a strong relationship between low cautiousness and occupational failure. In the Terman group, this trait was observed starting from childhood. Therefore, low cautiousness and low occupational success seem to be a key determinant of early mortality.
Ambition (ambition, achievement orientation) is an important indicator of occupational success. The results of the Terman study suggest that ambition, perseverance, high motivation and self-control are the key to both a successful professional life and a long life.
It has been observed that those who fail to make progress in their occupations and make frequent changes live shorter lives than those who maintain their occupations regularly and take on more responsibility. Although taking more responsibility increases workload, it paradoxically contributes to long-term health (3).
Dear readers, the life journeys of 1528 people, followed at regular intervals and in great detail from the age of 11 until their deaths, reveal how the so-called expert advice that surrounds our daily lives and much of the information that people who are influenced by it accept as “absolute truth” are based on unfounded foundations.
Source of work stress
The main source of work stress is conflict in human relations rather than the work itself. An oppressive and overbearing boss or manager, or the inability to get along with coworkers, can cause real health problems. This is especially true if work success depends on cooperation with others and the person has difficulty in realizing this.
Challenging tasks are less stressful if the person has control over the results. Having negative relations with the environment, having hostile traits and making a big deal out of small problems have a destructive effect on health.
People who are less critical of others, who avoid conflicts, who are flexible and do not necessarily try to get their way (compromisers) are healthier and live longer.
Unhealthy behaviors such as heavy smoking and/or drinking and an irregular marriage caused premature deaths in the professionally unsuccessful members of the Terman group. However, low personal vigilance and professional failure seem to be the main risk factors, even without the above-mentioned factors of smoking/drinking and irregular marriage.
In the 1970s, Terman group members were 60 years old. Robert Sears, himself a member of the Terman group, reassessed the job success and satisfaction of these people who had left behind their long working lives, based on the information gathered over many years. The result was that what mattered to these people was not the pursuit of happiness or friendship, but their families and their enjoyment of work. The vast majority of these people did not see work as a source of stress. Another information that emerged during this evaluation was that those who chose their profession were more satisfied than those who were dragged into a profession in the course of life (4).
Job, competence and personality matching
Today, in the field of human resources and in the management literature, much attention is paid to the compatibility of personality and occupation. This view is based on the research of psychologist John Holland. Holland described in detail the compatibility of people’s personality traits and occupational compatibility and stated that occupational choice reflects personality in many respects (5). As a result of this, it has been accepted, again with an overgeneralization and faulty reasoning, that those who do not choose a profession that suits their personality will be unhappy and unhealthy and that this incompatibility poses a threat not only to physical but also to mental health. However, the Terman study has shown that this approach is too “shallow” to explain the relationship between personality and occupational compatibility and health.
An important finding of the study is that personality and occupational fit does not guarantee longevity. For example, people who work in fields such as sales and insurance, where persuasion is necessary and entrepreneurship is predominant, have shorter life spans. On the other hand, those who have high social skills and work in appropriate professions are found to live longer6.
Another common belief is that people who work hard do not enjoy life much and miss out on the good things in life. Similarly, professions that require a high level of caution, such as accountancy, are considered to lead boring lives. However, the Terman study did not confirm this either. Those who work in a job where they find a sense of meaning and consider it important are more productive and successful, and live healthier and longer lives than those who take life and work easy and avoid pressure (7).
It is also known that those with higher levels of education live longer than those with lower levels. A person who is well educated and lives a productive life is successful in his or her profession and is likely to continue to develop and be creative, and this extends to other areas of life. However, those with lower levels of education are able to compensate for this through personal, social and professional success factors. Being consulted in one’s community, working actively in non-governmental organizations are examples in this direction. As can be seen, education alone is not decisive.
Conclusion
Contrary to popular belief, working hard and struggling with difficulties does not pose a direct risk to health. Similarly, doing your ideal job, working in a job that suits your personality, is not a guarantee of success and long life. Many members of the Terman group had jobs that were not their ideals and yet they were successful and lived fulfilled lives.
On the other hand, some of those who had an excellent profession risked their health because they developed unhealthy behaviors due to the difficulties of their profession. In conclusion, if we put aside our prejudices and put all the evidence together, we can say that intelligence and success are not enough to live a long life.
Appendix: In 1921, Levis Terman, a Stanford University psychologist, recruited curious, fast-learning children from schools in California. Terman was the developer of the first intelligence test. With a large research team, he put thousands of students through a three-stage test and identified 1528 students. He explained to them the purpose of the study and their very long relationship, and asked them if they would accept it. Being selected for this study was like being part of an elite group. The selected children proudly maintained this relationship throughout their lives. When they grew up, they called themselves Terman’s termites, then simply termites.
Terman conducted detailed interviews with the children’s parents and teachers until they were teenagers, and then with the children themselves. He not only tested their intelligence, but also tried to measure their emotional state, their sense of aesthetics, their social relationships, their attitudes in the classroom, the relationship between their parents, their physical health and activity. Terman compiled his findings in his books1,2,3,4,5 entitled “The Genetic Study of Genius”.
Sources
- Friedman, H.S. : The Multiple Linkages of Personality and Disease, Brain, Behaviour and Immunity, 22. (2008)
- Kern, M.L. ve ork. : Conocientiousness, Career Success, and Longevity: A Life opon Analysis. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 37. (2009)
- Pavalko, E.K. ve ork. : The Study of career progression. J. of Health and Social Behaviour, 34. (1993)
- R.R. Sears.: Sources of Life Satisfactions of the Terman Gifted Man. American Psychologist, 32. (1977)
- Holland, J.L. : The Psychological of Vocational Choice. A Theory of Personality Types and Model Environments, Baio Dell. (1966)
- Friedman, H.S., Martin, L.R. : The Longevity Project, Hudson Street Press. 2011
- Friedman, H.S. ve ork.: Personality and Health, Subjective Well-Being and Longevity. J. of Personality 78. (2010)
