Broderick And Blewitt Summary

Broderick and Blewitt explain that young adults feel as though they are still waiting for life to happen, but once individuals reach middle adulthood, they see themselves as “grown up.” When individuals reach middle adulthood, they may begin to reflect on their life satisfaction and determine what changes they need to make to live their happiest life. Life satisfaction is often measured by subjective well-being. Subjective well-being is an individual’s overall satisfaction with life and general happiness, and it is usually measured by questionnaires or interviews. Subjective well-being questionnaires and interviews are typically comprised of questions in which individuals rate their feelings about their lives on a continuum ranging from “very happy” to “very unhappy.” Many people believe that the more money you have, the happier you are; however, it has been found that wealth is only weakly correlated with subjective well-being scores. People who are living in poverty do report a lower subjective well-being score, but once individuals reach a

One system is called the behavioral inhibition system, which is related to “withdrawal and avoidance behaviors shaped through evolution to help people keep out of harm’s way” (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010). An aspect of the behavioral inhibition system is negative affectivity, or “the extent to which a person experiences nervousness, fear, anger, sadness, contempt, and guilt” (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010). The other system that Broderick and Blewitt discuss is the behavioral facilitation system. The behavioral facilitation system allows “people to respond to reinforcement and to approach and engage with the environment” (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010). A prominent fact in the behavioral facilitation system is positive affectivity, which is “the extent to which a person experiences enthusiasm, alertness, joy, confidence, and determination” (Broderick & Blewitt,