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If you haven't gotten to your midlife crisis yet,
如果你还没经历中年危机，
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,
根据大众文化的说法，人们在四十多岁时会突然变得很痛苦，
and to deal with it, they quit their jobs, buy sports cars they can't afford,
为了解决这个问题，他们辞掉工作，购买他们负担不起的跑车，
and have affairs with much younger people. Yikes.
并与年轻得多的人发生关系。呀！
Still, if you think about it, it's pretty weird to think that
不过，如果你仔细想想，就会感觉很奇怪，
turning a specific age would be enough to make us upend our lives.
改变一个特定年龄竟足以颠覆我们的生活。
So is the midlife crisis really a thing?
所以中年危机真的很重要吗？
Well, it's kind of complicated, but there's probably less to worry about than you think.
嗯，这有点儿复杂，但可能不如你所想的那般担心。
The term midlife crisis was coined by psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques in 1965.
“中年危机”这个词是精神分析学家埃利奥特·贾克斯在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.
他相信当你意识到自己已经活了大半辈子时，就会有危机。
He studied quote-unquote geniuses, like Bach, Shakespeare, and Mozart,
他研究了一些所谓的天才，比如巴赫、莎士比亚和莫扎特，
most of whom either died tragically or became much more prolific after their late 30s.
他们中的大多数人要么悲惨死去，要么在30多岁后变得更加多产。
He thought that the fear of not accomplishing everything they wanted to
他认为没有完成自己所想的恐惧
either killed them or lit a fire under them.
要么杀死了他们，要么点燃了他们的雄心。
Admittedly, he also thought that this didn't really apply to women,
而且他不否认这并不适用于女性，
because they went through menopause instead.
因为她们进入了更年期。
That's clearly not accurate, but because of it,
这显然不准确，但正因如此，
most midlife crisis stereotypes today are still about men.
大多数中年危机的刻板印象仍是关于男性的。
Of course, other thinkers at that time were also talking about developmental crises.
当然，当时其他的思想家也谈论发展危机。
And the one who really popularized the idea of the midlife crisis was researcher Daniel Levinson.
真正普及了“中年危机”概念的是研究人员丹尼尔·莱文森。
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稳定时期组成的，
interspersed with crises known as transitional periods.
其中穿插着被称为过渡期的危机。
He based his stages on work from previous psychologists
他的基础是以前心理学家的研究成果
and on his own study of 40 American men aged 35 to 45.
以及他自己对40名35至45岁的美国男性进行的研究。
Levinson thought that the biggest transition, which happened in middle age,
莱文森认为，发生在中年时期的最大转变
had to do with a sense of not accomplishing enough.
与不够成功的感觉有关。
He believed it could be dealt with by learning to set more reasonable goals.
他认为他们可以通过学习设定更合理的目标来解决这个问题。
Still, tiny sample sizes of one group aren't always reliable,
尽管如此，一个群体的小样本容量并不可靠。
so more recently, researchers have tried looking for the midlife crisis in bigger, more diverse samples,
于是最近，研究人员已经尝试在更大、更多样的样本中寻找中年危机。
and they seem to have found it.
而且他们似乎已经找到了。
One trend that has emerged is a U-curve in reported happiness levels.
一个已经出现的趋势是报告中幸福水平的U型曲线。
People seem to be happy early in life and at the end of it, but they slump in the middle.
人们似乎在生命的早期和晚期都很快乐，却在中年时期消沉。
This trend has been found in multiple studies,
这一趋势已在多项研究中发现，
looking at over a million people in more than 50 countries.
研究对象是50多个国家的一百多万人。
In 2013, one researcher proposed a possible explanation for the U-curve pattern,
2013年，一位研究人员提出了一种对U型曲线模型的可能解释，
after analyzing a 13-year-long German study of 23,000 people.
在此之前，他分析了一项对2.3万人进行的为期13年的德国研究。
He said it had to do with expectations.
他说危机与期望有关。
According to his hypothesis,
根据他的假说，
young people expect to beat the average when it comes to careers and happy relationships.
年轻人期望在事业和幸福关系上超过平均水平。
And when things don't quite work out that way, they're disappointed.
当事情不那么顺利时，他们会失望。
They do eventually adjust their expectations,
最终，他们会调整自己的期望，
but not always fast enough to prevent that disappointment.
但并不总能够快地防止这种失望。
The result is pessimism and dissatisfaction, a double whammy of misery.
结果他们会遭受悲观、不满以及痛苦的双重打击。
But at some point, as they get older, those expectations do align with reality,
但在某些时候，随着年龄的增长，这些期望与现实相符，
possibly because, according to some research, the aging brain is less prone to regret.
根据某些研究，这可能是因为衰老的大脑不那么容易后悔。
Life starts getting better… and because expectations are lower,
生活开始变得更好…因为预期较低，
it's a pleasant surprise that brings people back up the curve.
让人们回归曲线是个惊喜。
Now, if this all sounds pretty depressing, it is worth mentioning that the U-curve isn't set in stone.
如果这一切听起来相当令人沮丧的话，就该提提U型曲线并不是一成不变的。
It's still pretty hotly debated for a number of reasons.
由于种种原因，它仍被激烈地争论着。
For one, several recent studies have found that well-being simply increases as we age, without the middle-age dip.
首先，最近的几项研究发现，没有中年的消沉，幸福感会随年龄增长而增加。
And there are some issues with the studies that showed the U-curve, too.
还有一些研究中的问题也显示了U型曲线。
Many of them are cross-sectional studies,
它们中有很多都是横向研究，
meaning that they look at lots of different-aged people and use them to estimate trends over the lifespan.
这意味着他们会观察许多不同年龄的人，并利用他们来估计寿命趋势。
This is different from a longitudinal study,
这和纵向研究不同，
which follows the same subjects over a long period of time.
它是指长期跟踪一个目标。
Longitudinal studies can be more accurate for long-term research,
纵向研究对长期研究来说更精确，
but not many have been done about midlife crises.
但对中年危机的应用却不多。
Until recently, old age, childhood, and adolescence were studied much more often than middle age.
直到最近，老年人、儿童和青少年的研究仍要比中年时期多得多。
Still, the longitudinal studies that have been done tend to show that steady increase in well-being.
尽管如此，已经完成的纵向研究倾向于表明幸福感在稳定增长。
That could mean cross-sectional studies aren't entirely accurate,
这可能意味着横向研究并不完全准确，
but we'll need to do more research to know for sure.
但是我们需要做更多的研究来确定。
There's also an issue of definitions.
还有一个定义的问题。
You might call a midlife crisis a difficult transition that occurs around age 40.
你可能会把40岁左右的艰难转变称为中年危机。
But different researchers have different criteria:
但是不同的研究人员有不同的标准：
Is it stressful? Is it eventful? Is it internally or externally-driven?
有压力吗？它重要吗？它是内部驱动还是外部驱动？
Even when researchers do agree, the public's definition tends to be much broader.
甚至在研究人员同意的情况下，公众的定义会更加宽泛。
A 1992 study found that just 10% of people had had midlife crises
1992年的一项研究发现，研究者确定他们是否符合正确标准的时候，
when the researcher determined whether they met the right criteria.
发现只有10%的人经历过中年危机，
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年的一项研究中，当人们直接被问及是否经历过中年危机时，26%的人表示经历过。
The public's definition of this is similar to researchers',
公众对它的定义与研究者相似，
but tends to include any stress or turmoil encountered between 30 and 65.
但倾向于包括30到65岁之间遇到的任何压力或骚动。
So the idea of the midlife crisis may prevail in pop culture
所以中年危机这一概念在大众文化中流行，
partly because we take any stressful event in the middle of our lives and slap that label on it.
部分原因是我们生活中承受的任何压力，都被贴上了这种标签。
One way or another, this is definitely a topic that needs more investigation.
无论如何，这绝对是个需要更多调查的话题。
But the good news is that even if the U-curve does exist,
但好消息是，即使U曲线确实存在，
it doesn't mean that middle-aged people are all miserable.
也不意味着中年人都很痛苦。
On average, studies so far have shown it's actually a pretty small decrease in happiness,
平均而言，目前的研究显示，它只是幸福的一个小幅下降，
not the life-altering angst we associate with the stereotype.
不是与刻板印象相关的改变生活的焦虑。
So don't worry about it too much.
所以不必太过担心。
Your job-quitting, Ferrari-buying phase might never arrive.
你的辞职，法拉利的购买阶段可能永远不会到来。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢您收看本期的心理科学秀！
If you'd like to keep learning about the human mind with us,
如果你想和我们一起继续学习人脑有关的内容，
you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe.
可以登录youtube.com/scishowpsych，点击订阅。
