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If you haven't gotten to your midlife crisis yet,
如果你還沒經(jīng)歷中年危機(jī)，
you're probably not looking forward to it.
你可能不太期待。
According to pop culture, people hit their forties and suddenly become miserable,
根據(jù)大眾文化的說法，人們在四十多歲時會突然變得很痛苦，
and to deal with it, they quit their jobs, buy sports cars they can't afford,
為了解決這個問題，他們辭掉工作，購買他們負(fù)擔(dān)不起的跑車，
and have affairs with much younger people. Yikes.
并與年輕得多的人發(fā)生關(guān)系。呀！
Still, if you think about it, it's pretty weird to think that
不過，如果你仔細(xì)想想，就會感覺很奇怪，
turning a specific age would be enough to make us upend our lives.
改變一個特定年齡竟足以顛覆我們的生活。
So is the midlife crisis really a thing?
所以中年危機(jī)真的很重要嗎？
Well, it's kind of complicated, but there's probably less to worry about than you think.
嗯，這有點(diǎn)兒復(fù)雜，但可能不如你所想的那般擔(dān)心。
The term midlife crisis was coined by psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques in 1965.
“中年危機(jī)”這個詞是精神分析學(xué)家埃利奧特·賈克斯在1965年提出的。
He believed that you had your crisis when you realized that you'd already lived more than half your life.
他相信當(dāng)你意識到自己已經(jīng)活了大半輩子時，就會有危機(jī)。
He studied quote-unquote geniuses, like Bach, Shakespeare, and Mozart,
他研究了一些所謂的天才，比如巴赫、莎士比亞和莫扎特，
most of whom either died tragically or became much more prolific after their late 30s.
他們中的大多數(shù)人要么悲慘死去，要么在30多歲后變得更加多產(chǎn)。
He thought that the fear of not accomplishing everything they wanted to
他認(rèn)為沒有完成自己所想的恐懼
either killed them or lit a fire under them.
要么殺死了他們，要么點(diǎn)燃了他們的雄心。
Admittedly, he also thought that this didn't really apply to women,
而且他不否認(rèn)這并不適用于女性，
because they went through menopause instead.
因?yàn)樗齻冞M(jìn)入了更年期。
That's clearly not accurate, but because of it,
這顯然不準(zhǔn)確，但正因如此，
most midlife crisis stereotypes today are still about men.
大多數(shù)中年危機(jī)的刻板印象仍是關(guān)于男性的。
Of course, other thinkers at that time were also talking about developmental crises.
當(dāng)然，當(dāng)時其他的思想家也談?wù)摪l(fā)展危機(jī)。
And the one who really popularized the idea of the midlife crisis was researcher Daniel Levinson.
真正普及了“中年危機(jī)”概念的是研究人員丹尼爾·萊文森。
In 1975, he proposed that life was made up of a series of stable periods
1975年，他提出生命是由一系列的穩(wěn)定時期組成的，
interspersed with crises known as transitional periods.
其中穿插著被稱為過渡期的危機(jī)。
He based his stages on work from previous psychologists
他的基礎(chǔ)是以前心理學(xué)家的研究成果
and on his own study of 40 American men aged 35 to 45.
以及他自己對40名35至45歲的美國男性進(jìn)行的研究。
Levinson thought that the biggest transition, which happened in middle age,
萊文森認(rèn)為，發(fā)生在中年時期的最大轉(zhuǎn)變
had to do with a sense of not accomplishing enough.
與不夠成功的感覺有關(guān)。
He believed it could be dealt with by learning to set more reasonable goals.
他認(rèn)為他們可以通過學(xué)習(xí)設(shè)定更合理的目標(biāo)來解決這個問題。
Still, tiny sample sizes of one group aren't always reliable,
盡管如此，一個群體的小樣本容量并不可靠。
so more recently, researchers have tried looking for the midlife crisis in bigger, more diverse samples,
于是最近，研究人員已經(jīng)嘗試在更大、更多樣的樣本中尋找中年危機(jī)。
and they seem to have found it.
而且他們似乎已經(jīng)找到了。
One trend that has emerged is a U-curve in reported happiness levels.
一個已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)的趨勢是報(bào)告中幸福水平的U型曲線。
People seem to be happy early in life and at the end of it, but they slump in the middle.
人們似乎在生命的早期和晚期都很快樂，卻在中年時期消沉。
This trend has been found in multiple studies,
這一趨勢已在多項(xiàng)研究中發(fā)現(xiàn)，
looking at over a million people in more than 50 countries.
研究對象是50多個國家的一百多萬人。
In 2013, one researcher proposed a possible explanation for the U-curve pattern,
2013年，一位研究人員提出了一種對U型曲線模型的可能解釋，
after analyzing a 13-year-long German study of 23,000 people.
在此之前，他分析了一項(xiàng)對2.3萬人進(jìn)行的為期13年的德國研究。
He said it had to do with expectations.
他說危機(jī)與期望有關(guān)。
According to his hypothesis,
根據(jù)他的假說，
young people expect to beat the average when it comes to careers and happy relationships.
年輕人期望在事業(yè)和幸福關(guān)系上超過平均水平。
And when things don't quite work out that way, they're disappointed.
當(dāng)事情不那么順利時，他們會失望。
They do eventually adjust their expectations,
最終，他們會調(diào)整自己的期望，
but not always fast enough to prevent that disappointment.
但并不總能夠快地防止這種失望。
The result is pessimism and dissatisfaction, a double whammy of misery.
結(jié)果他們會遭受悲觀、不滿以及痛苦的雙重打擊。
But at some point, as they get older, those expectations do align with reality,
但在某些時候，隨著年齡的增長，這些期望與現(xiàn)實(shí)相符，
possibly because, according to some research, the aging brain is less prone to regret.
根據(jù)某些研究，這可能是因?yàn)樗ダ系拇竽X不那么容易后悔。
Life starts getting better… and because expectations are lower,
生活開始變得更好…因?yàn)轭A(yù)期較低，
it's a pleasant surprise that brings people back up the curve.
讓人們回歸曲線是個驚喜。
Now, if this all sounds pretty depressing, it is worth mentioning that the U-curve isn't set in stone.
如果這一切聽起來相當(dāng)令人沮喪的話，就該提提U型曲線并不是一成不變的。
It's still pretty hotly debated for a number of reasons.
由于種種原因，它仍被激烈地爭論著。
For one, several recent studies have found that well-being simply increases as we age, without the middle-age dip.
首先，最近的幾項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，沒有中年的消沉，幸福感會隨年齡增長而增加。
And there are some issues with the studies that showed the U-curve, too.
還有一些研究中的問題也顯示了U型曲線。
Many of them are cross-sectional studies,
它們中有很多都是橫向研究，
meaning that they look at lots of different-aged people and use them to estimate trends over the lifespan.
這意味著他們會觀察許多不同年齡的人，并利用他們來估計(jì)壽命趨勢。
This is different from a longitudinal study,
這和縱向研究不同，
which follows the same subjects over a long period of time.
它是指長期跟蹤一個目標(biāo)。
Longitudinal studies can be more accurate for long-term research,
縱向研究對長期研究來說更精確，
but not many have been done about midlife crises.
但對中年危機(jī)的應(yīng)用卻不多。
Until recently, old age, childhood, and adolescence were studied much more often than middle age.
直到最近，老年人、兒童和青少年的研究仍要比中年時期多得多。
Still, the longitudinal studies that have been done tend to show that steady increase in well-being.
盡管如此，已經(jīng)完成的縱向研究傾向于表明幸福感在穩(wěn)定增長。
That could mean cross-sectional studies aren't entirely accurate,
這可能意味著橫向研究并不完全準(zhǔn)確，
but we'll need to do more research to know for sure.
但是我們需要做更多的研究來確定。
There's also an issue of definitions.
還有一個定義的問題。
You might call a midlife crisis a difficult transition that occurs around age 40.
你可能會把40歲左右的艱難轉(zhuǎn)變稱為中年危機(jī)。
But different researchers have different criteria:
但是不同的研究人員有不同的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)：
Is it stressful? Is it eventful? Is it internally or externally-driven?
有壓力嗎？它重要嗎？它是內(nèi)部驅(qū)動還是外部驅(qū)動？
Even when researchers do agree, the public's definition tends to be much broader.
甚至在研究人員同意的情況下，公眾的定義會更加寬泛。
A 1992 study found that just 10% of people had had midlife crises
1992年的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，研究者確定他們是否符合正確標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的時候，
when the researcher determined whether they met the right criteria.
發(fā)現(xiàn)只有10%的人經(jīng)歷過中年危機(jī)，
But, in a 2000 study, when people were directly asked if they'd had a midlife crisis, 26% of them said yes.
但是在2000年的一項(xiàng)研究中，當(dāng)人們直接被問及是否經(jīng)歷過中年危機(jī)時，26%的人表示經(jīng)歷過。
The public's definition of this is similar to researchers',
公眾對它的定義與研究者相似，
but tends to include any stress or turmoil encountered between 30 and 65.
但傾向于包括30到65歲之間遇到的任何壓力或騷動。
So the idea of the midlife crisis may prevail in pop culture
所以中年危機(jī)這一概念在大眾文化中流行，
partly because we take any stressful event in the middle of our lives and slap that label on it.
部分原因是我們生活中承受的任何壓力，都被貼上了這種標(biāo)簽。
One way or another, this is definitely a topic that needs more investigation.
無論如何，這絕對是個需要更多調(diào)查的話題。
But the good news is that even if the U-curve does exist,
但好消息是，即使U曲線確實(shí)存在，
it doesn't mean that middle-aged people are all miserable.
也不意味著中年人都很痛苦。
On average, studies so far have shown it's actually a pretty small decrease in happiness,
平均而言，目前的研究顯示，它只是幸福的一個小幅下降，
not the life-altering angst we associate with the stereotype.
不是與刻板印象相關(guān)的改變生活的焦慮。
So don't worry about it too much.
所以不必太過擔(dān)心。
Your job-quitting, Ferrari-buying phase might never arrive.
你的辭職，法拉利的購買階段可能永遠(yuǎn)不會到來。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感謝您收看本期的心理科學(xué)秀！
If you'd like to keep learning about the human mind with us,
如果你想和我們一起繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)人腦有關(guān)的內(nèi)容，
you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe.
可以登錄youtube.com/scishowpsych，點(diǎn)擊訂閱。
