Gender differences in depression are well established, and studies have found that biological, psychological, and social factors contribute to the disparity. But research also shows that women are more likely to experience intense positive emotions — such as joy and happiness — compared to men.
According to a study published in the Social Indicators Research journal, we're the happiest between the ages of 30-34, and midlife (our 40s and 50s) is not perceived as the least happy period in life.
Most researchers agree that women are more emotionally expressive, but not that they experience more emotions than men do. Some studies have shown that women are more likely to produce inauthentic smiles than men do, while others have shown the opposite.
Apparently, men do not get meaner, irritable and more sarcastic as they get older. In fact, among the men participating in The Study of Adult Development - the longest longitudinal study of adult life ever conducted - men seem to get happier as they get older.
Men are happier when they're married.
Conversely, only 31% were filed by men. You could jump to two different conclusions based on those numbers: Women are unhappier in their marriages than men are. The unhappiness might be on par, but women are far less likely to put up with it.
Time for Personal Pursuits. While women have plenty of reasons that they prefer being single, men do as well. Men often tend to be a bit more detached than women. In other cases, men enjoy the emotional high of dates even if they don't want to get into a relationship.
Married men and married women live, on average, two years longer than their unmarried counterparts. One reason for this longevity benefit is the influence of marital partners on healthy behaviors. Study after study shows that married people eat better and are less likely to smoke and drink excessively.
And though for most people it happens young, it's certainly not true for everyone. They found 55 percent of people fall in love for the first time between the ages of 15 and 18. So it's more than half, but that means 45 percent of people still haven't been in love when they enter college.
The poll has revealed that the majority of men do not embrace romance until they are well into their fifties, but as soon as they attain 53 they can even beat youths when it comes to showering their partners with love.
Men's Hormones Last Longer
When it comes to aging, women's levels of the estrogen hormone begin to decline much earlier and much more quickly than men's levels of the testosterone hormone do. This quicker decline in hormone levels is the reason that men seem to age much more slowly than women do.
Several factors play a role in an individual's propensity to cry. Gender differences in crying, for example, have been explored for decades and across the world, and all of the studies reached the same conclusion: Women cry more than men.
In numerous studies females score higher than males in standard tests of emotion recognition, social sensitivity and empathy. Neuroimaging studies have investigated these findings further and discovered that females utilise more areas of the brain containing mirror neurons than males when they process emotions.
According to the findings of this study, females are more flexible than males. The stiffness of female muscles is less than that of males.
The onset of adolescence, generally between 12 and 14, is the hardest age for a teenage girl. The hormones of puberty cause her to feel her emotions more intensely but she has not yet developed the reasoning skills to know how to handle them.
Scientists have been taking a closer look at this stage and believe children start experiencing a surge of hormones between the ages of 6 and 8, which can cause heightened emotions.
Parents who have girls are much happier than those with boys, particularly when the children reach early adulthood, according to a study.
While men seem to be genetically predisposed to be attracted to women in their mid-to-late-20s, women tend to be attracted to men around their ages, if not older; this means men in their 30s have the best of both worlds. Men in their 30s are attractive to a wide range of women, from 20-somethings to women in their 40s.
In short, heterosexual men will find 20-year-old women most attractive regardless of how old they are. Women, on the other hand, tend to find men of a similar age to them most attractive so as they get older, women will generally start to be into older men.
Men prefer a woman who can stay calm and relaxed. Beauty is more than make-up and a fancy haircut. Men find women more attractive when they are neat and clean. Men find women who smell nice, who have clean hair and hydrated skin more attractive than a face perfectly covered in makeup.
Around ages 12-15, people often start having their first kiss. Don't feel pressured by other people your age kissing people, and don't rush into kissing someone if you are apprehensive. You'll know intuitively when the time feels right.
Love is in the air
No need to wait for the official first date to get a little face time, however. Americans agree kids are ready for their first kiss at age 15 (15.1 on average), while on average, they had theirs at age 14.5.
In fact, researchers found that men thought about confessing love six weeks earlier, on average, than women. The general consensus among studies on love is that men fall in love faster than women.
Hu found that reported happiness was higher overall among married people than unmarried people. By gender, 56.2 percent of married men said they were “very happy,” compared with only 39.4 percent of unmarried men who said so.
According to Stanford University, “… nearly 70% of women initiated a divorce.” Psychologists argue that this is the result of building resentment resulting from years of emotional miscommunication.
A 2014 Pew Report estimated that by the time today's young adults reach the age of about 50, about 25% will have been single all their lives. Of course, some could still marry after the age of 50, but those numbers are likely to be small.