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institution1938–present

Harvard Study of Adult Development

Disciplines:
positive psychology/happiness research
positive psychology
psychology/longitudinal psychology
psychology/adult development

Summary

The world's longest-running scientific study of adult life, tracking Harvard graduates and inner-city Boston men from the 1930s to the present — whose primary finding is that the quality of relationships is the single strongest predictor of health and happiness in old age.

Core Contribution

Provided the most rigorous longitudinal evidence that relationship quality — not wealth, fame, or achievement — is the strongest predictor of late-life wellbeing, health, and cognitive preservation.

Historical Influences

Arlie Bock George Vaillant Robert Waldinger

Intellectual Lineage

Harvard Medical School Longitudinal Psychology ResearchPositive Psychology

Contemporaries & Peers

Framingham Heart StudyDunedin Study

Minds Influenced

Positive psychology Relationship scienceHappiness research

Intellectual Posterity

'Good relationships keep us happier and healthier'The Good Life

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Harvard Study of Adult Development

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