Eric Stein
FNDN 201 IR: Ideas that Inspire
Instr. Eric Stein
January 1, 2021
[topic]
In Robert Waldinger’s TED Talk, “What Makes a Good Life?” (2016), Waldinger reports on eighty years worth of findings from the Harvard Study of Adult Development. He talks about the overwhelming role that relationships play in human wellbeing, from emotional health, to physical health, and even cognitive health.
[evidence]
Waldinger reports that “being in a securely attached relationship to another person in your eighties is protective … those people’s memories stay sharper, longer” (2016).
[explication]
This result of the study means that a factor external to the individual (a relationship with another person) actually impacts the internal state of that individual (their neurology).
[claim]
So, then, the findings of the Harvard Study make clear that good relationships are not merely a nice addition to an already good life; rather, good relationships are foundational to a good life.