Satisfaction in Stages of the Life Cycle, Levels of General Happiness and Frequency of Peak Experience.

Undergraduate students rated middle adulthood as the most satisfying life stage, followed by early childhood, later adulthood, middle childhood, old age, later childhood, early adulthood, and adolescence as the least satisfying. Overall, 66% described their lives as very or somewhat satisfying, 24% as so-so, and 10% as somewhat or very unsatisfying. On a 10-point elation-depression scale, the average rating was 6 (feeling pretty good, OK). Only 11% reported never having had a peak experience as described by Maslow. These results align closely with other published work.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This study focuses on reported (a) satisfaction in stages of the life cycle; (b) levels of general happiness; and (c) frequency of peak experiences. Participants were 48 undergraduate students (17 males, 31 females) at Laurentian University, Canada. (a)They were asked to indicate past, present, and future satisfaction with the stages in their own life cycle. The following order of satisfaction emerged, starting with the most satisfying stage: (1) middle adulthood; (2) early childhood; (3) later adulthood; (4) middle childhood; (5) old age; (6) later childhood; (7) early adulthood; and (8) adolescence. (b) In an overall rating, 66% described their lives as very or somewhat satisfying , 24% as so-so and 10% as somewhat or very unsatisfying . On a 10-point elation-depression scale, the mean rating for the participants was 6 ( feeling pretty good, OK ). Also investigated was the reported frequency of the peak experience as described by Maslow. Only 11% indicated that they had not had such an experience. Results from all three areas in this study accord closely with other relevant published work.