enotalone Home  |  Forum  |  Search    
Aging Well
Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development
by George E. Vaillant
List Price: 14.99
Price: 10.19

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (January 08 2003)
Costumer Rating: Costumer rating

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1: The Study of Adult Development
The past century's advances in medicine and technology have added decades to our life expectancy. More of us can expect to live into our eighties, nineties, and beyond. But what most of us want to know is: How can we make the best of those extra years?

Chapter 1: The Harvard (Grant) Cohort
The 'Grant Study' of adult development was begun at Harvard University by Arlie Bock and Clark Heath. These two student health service physicians had received a gift from a philanthropist, William T. Grant, to study healthy development.



Book Description

Think diet and exercise are the keys to a long, healthy life? Think again.

What can you do to increase the likelihood of living a happy, healthy, fulfilling life into your sixties, seventies, eighties, and beyond?

For more than five decades Harvard Medical School has studied the basic elements of adult human development, analyzing the health and happiness of hundreds of individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds. In Aging Well, George E. Vaillant, M.D., the director of the study, draws on the data gathered and reveals for the first time why some people turn out to be more resilient than others. His surprising conclusion is that individual lifestyle choices play a greater role than genetics, wealth, race, or other factors in determining how happy people are in later life.

Among the topics Dr. Vaillant explores:

  • The importance of marriage and the impact of divorce

  • The role of play and creative activity

  • The effects of tobacco, alcohol, and other mood elevators

  • The benefits of forming new friendships and new social networks

  • The importance of intellectual curiosity and lifelong learning

With its step-by-step advice and its revelation of scientific secrets, this inspiring book can help you - whether you are thirty-five or sixty-five - ensure that your golden years are truly golden.

About the Author

George E. Vaillant, M.D.George E. Vaillant, M.D.

George E. Vaillant, M.D., is a widely respected researcher, a psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and a professor at the Harvard Medical School. He is also the author of several books, including Adaptation to Life, Wisdom of the Ego, and the classic The Natural History of Alcoholism..

  » More by George E. Vaillant, M.D.