Category: Happiness

Which spouse’s happiness is most important for marital satisfaction?

When the wife is happy with a long-term partnership, the husband is happier, no matter how he feels about the marriage.

For marital quality, it seems the wife’s happiness matters more than the husband’s.

The conclusion comes from a study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, which looked at the marital satisfaction and happiness of older adults (Carr et al., 2014).

Professor Deborah Carr, the study’s first author said:

“I think it comes down to the fact that when a wife is satisfied with the marriage she tends to do a lot more for her husband, which has a positive effect on his life.

Men tend to be less vocal about their relationships and their level of marital unhappiness might not be translated to their wives.”

Almost 400 couples took part in the research, which asked them how much they argue, get on each other’s nerves, whether they are appreciated by their spouses and how much they feel understood.

The couples also kept diaries detailing how happy they were while taking part in everyday activities like watching television and doing household chores.

Along with the importance of the wife’s happiness, the researchers also found that wives got less happy when their husbands were sick, but the husbands’ happiness did not drop in response to their wife’s sickness.

Professor Carr thinks this is to do with who takes over the care-giving:

“We know that when a partner is sick it is the wife that often does the caregiving, which can be a stressful experience.

But often when a woman gets sick it is not her husband she relies on but her daughter.”

Finally, the researchers looked at the overall quality of the marriages.

They found that most rated their life satisfaction as ‘high’: a five out of six points.

Overall, husbands were slightly happier with their marriages than wives.

Carr continued:

“For both spouses being in a better-rated marriage was linked to greater life satisfaction and happiness.”

“The quality of a marriage is important because it provides a buffer against the health-depleting effects of later life stressors and helps couples manage difficult decisions regarding health and medical decision making.”

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These films help people make sense of problems in life and accept the human condition.

Meaningful films help people cope with life’s problems, research suggests.

People report that movies like The Shawshank Redemption, Up and Schindler’s List, help them to make sense of problems in life and accept the human condition.

Other films rated as meaningful include Hotel Rwanda and Slumdog Millionaire.

While these films are not necessarily uplifting, they are all moving and poignant.

And that is the key to a meaningful film: having an emotional range, being inspirational and containing both happy and sad moments.

People did not report these types of benefits when they watched other well-regarded but not so meaningful films like Catch Me If You Can and The Big Lebowski.

Mr Jared Ott, the study’s first author, said:

“Meaningful movies actually help people cope with difficulties in their own lives, and help them want to pursue more significant goals.”

For the study, over 1,000 people rated different films — 20 of which were chosen for being highly meaningful, while the other 20 were not (see below for the full list).

Professor Michael Slater, study co-author, explained the results:

“We found that people felt better able to make sense of difficulties in their own life when they recalled a movie that focused on values that were important to them.”

Films which were more meaningful, people said were more likely to help them:

• “Feel like struggles in life are for a reason.”
• “More easily handle difficult situations with grace and courage.”

People thinking about meaningful films were also more likely to agree with statements like:

• “Both happy and sad experiences give meaning to our life.”
• “Gains and losses are part of life.”

The research also showed the importance of individual values.

People found more meaning in films that espoused values they themselves believed in.

Mr Ott said:

“That happened even when the movie was classified as one of the less meaningful films.

The findings suggest why many people see movies as more than just entertainment.

Some films may help people cope and grow through difficult periods in their life.

And people may recognize this effect years after they have seen a particular movie.”

20 meaningful films

Here is the full list of more meaningful films, in no particular order:

• The Shawshank Redemption
• Forrest Gump
• The Pursuit of Happyness
• Into the Wild
• The Green Mile
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Schindler’s List
• A Beautiful Mind
• The Pianist
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Gran Torino
• Rain Man
• Good Will Hunting
• Saving Private Ryan
• Dead Poet’s Society
• Braveheart
• Hotel Rwanda
• Million Dollar Baby
• Gladiator
• Up

The less meaningful films used in the study:

• Pulp Fiction
• Casino
• Blood Diamond
• The Departed
• The Big Lebowski
• Mystic River
• The Usual Suspects
• Catch Me if You Can
• Snatch1
• There will be blood
• No Country for Old Men
• Crimes and Misdemeanors
• Trainspotting
• LA Confidential
• The Princess Bride
• Se7en
• V for Vendetta
• Sin City
• Fight Club
• Ratatouille

The study was published in the journal Mass Communication and Society (Ott et al., 2021).