Research Article Time Does Not Heal All Wounds A Longitudinal Study of Reaction

Question

Research Article Time Does Not Heal All Wounds A Longitudinal Study of Reaction and Adaptation to Divoree Riehard E. Lueas Michigan State University and German Institute of Economic Research, Berlin, Germany ARSTRACT-Cro-setionel stedics shone thot dicorAldough theare is consideralde evidence for the estence af ?1, report lower levels of life sotisfertion than do mar- these adaptatien effets, questions rennain about their strength rind people. Boceer, such studies cannot determine wheth and whiquity. These questions result from the difficulties that er satisfaction actually changes following dieorce. In the arise when studying life events. Life events cannot be repro- eurrent study, data from an 18 year panel study of more than daced in the laboratory, and there-fore it is almost impossible to 30,000 Germans were wsed to examine reaction and ad. study them experimentally. Furthermore, most life events are aptation to divorce. Results show that satisfaction drops as relatively rare, and thas large samples are needed to find sffi- one appreaches divorce and then gradually rebounds oser cient numbers of individuals who have experienced the event in time. Howerer, the return to baseline is not complete. In question. Finally, life events are not completely exogenous addition, prospective analyses show that people who will Instead, individual diflerences-inclading differences in well- divorce are less happy than those cho stay married, even heing-may make life events more or less likely to occur for before either group gets married. Thus, the association different people (Diener, Nickerson, Lacas, & Sandvik, 2002 between divorce and life satisfaction is due to both preex Headey & Wearing. 1969, Marks& Fleming. 1999). Thus,even isting differences and lasting changes folloning the event. when cruss-sectional studies show that a past life event is or is not associated with subjective well-being, it is difficult to de- termine whether within-penon changes in well-being have ac- tually occured. Without such information, it is impossible to One of the most surprising findings in the study of emotion and subjective well-being is that life events do not seem to have a strong eflect on happiness and life satisfaction Although people dread the prospect of becoening disahled, losing their job, or ending a romantic relationship, much existing research suggests draw strong conclusions about adaptation effects. In the current study, I examined lang-term changes in life satisfaction before and alter divorce. Cross-sectional studies have consistently shown that marital status is associaled with life not suffer long term emptional cosrqurnces from satisfaction, with married people reporting higher levels than divorced people (Haring-Hidore, Stock, Okun, &Witter;, 1985; Myers, 1999). Yet longitudinal evidence about the processes that are responsible for these effects is sparse and inconclusive. Most longitudinal studies are limited by small sample sizes, shom durations, or few measurement occasions (see Johnson& W 2002, and laucas, Clark, Georgellis, & Diener, 2003, for reviews In addition, most studies have slarted tracking people very clos s to the time of divorce, which means that preevent lesels of wel these events, Most studics show that life events for only short periods of tinse, and that people have an amazing ability to adapt to almast any life cireumstance (Briekman, Coates, & Janoff-Bulman, 1978 Frederick& Lewenstein, 199 Headey & Wearing, 1989 Suh, Diener,&Fujita;, 1996). In fact, adaptation effects appear to be so strong and so ubiquitous that some researchers have suggested that emotions are regulated by or few In addition, points (Brickman& Campbell, 1971: Headey & Weagng are mot known. Finally, the lew long-term prmspecti 1992). People may temporarily move away from their average level, but over time, bedonic adaplation returns them to baseline. studies that exist have arrived at conflicting conclusions ab adaptation effects. For example, Booth and Amato (1991) fou that adaptation to divorce was complete, but when Johnson a Wu (2002) analyzed the same sample of participants (with additional wave of data and a different analytic model).t Address correspondence to Richard E. Lucas, Department of Pay- chology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824: e-mail: found that divorce was associated with permanent change lacasri@msu.ndu. levels of distress

Explanation / Answer

The study described the psychological and mental conditions of the divorced person and compare it with the married person. Researches say that the life after marriage becomes more responsible because we live for other’s happiness and share ideas, thoughts, and life with him/her.

The recent study support previous studies about marriage life so that we can also make a comparison between single, married and divorced. Life before marriage experiences different aspects than married life because conditioned our behavior towards another person. Divorce is a reality of marriage agreement and our social structure but life after divorce become more critical than before because we used to live as a family and after divorce, we live and survive alone while we developed a habit to live with partner.

So that the study comparing variables with the cross-sectional approach, this study is related to the socio-psycho condition of family and divorced person.

Strength of the study-

1- The study used social issue and examine a large amount of data which increased the validity and objectivity of the research.

2- Methods used to evaluate and assessed the variables is good enough and provided appropriate information.

Weaknesses-

1- The study did not examine the social and cultural factors so that we cannot understand the effects of social and cultural factors on married life and life after divorce.

2- The research is not completed because it has taken general issues rather than critical issues and situations.

3- The Data collected for the study were not categorized properly so that the information and facts derived from the research are not completely accurate.

   

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