The Quantasia Library

Emotional Longevity: What Really Determines How Long You Live

by Norman Anderson

Claudia Vece – 8 May 2022

There may be significant health consequences to increasing resilience. For example, research demonstrates that people with good relationships-the behavior most frequently associated with resilience-tend to be healthier than those without good connections to others (Berkman & Syme, 1979, as cited in Anderson & Anderson, 2003). Similarly, people who maintain an optimistic view of the world-another of the behaviors frequently associated with resilience-tend to be healthier (Anderson & Anderson, 2003). …

Norman Anderson

How is longevity determined?

Longevity and health are determined by a diverse set of factors. Emotional Longevity explores them all, providing nothing less than a new definition of what it means to be healthy.

Drawing on the findings of the most important scientific studies, leading behavioral scientist Dr. Norman Anderson, along with his coauthor and spouse, health journalist P. Elizabeth Anderson, identifies the combination of links between biology and social environment, beliefs, and emotions that influence our vulnerability to everything from the common cold to heart disease, high blood pressure, and the speed of recovery from illness.

These include: your expectations about the future, how you explain events that happened in your past, your friendships and social ties, your education and income, traumatic experiences that you never disclosed to anyone, and your ability to find meaning following adversity.

Through the stories of many prominent figures, including Maya Angelou, Reynolds Price, and Linda Ellerbee, the authors underscore the reality of these scientific findings, and Dr. Anderson’s conclusions show us how to enhance the quality of our lives.

Norman Anderson was born on October 16, 1955, in Greensboro, North Carolina. After graduating from North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C., Anderson earned master’s and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

He received additional clinical and research training at the schools of medicine at Brown and Duke Universities, including postdoctoral fellowships in psychophysiology and aging at Duke.

Anderson also received training in Mindfulness Facilitation from the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California at Los Angeles. In addition, Anderson is trained as a Certified Executive and Professional Coach through the College of Executive Coaching.

In 1998, Anderson was elected president of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, becoming the first African-American to hold the position.

He was the founding associate director of the National Institutes of Health , where he was in charge of social and behavioral science, and was the first director of the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research.

While at NIH, Anderson facilitated behavioral and social sciences research across all of its Institutes and Centers.

Research in the behavioral and social research was under his purview in areas such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, children’s health, mental health, minority health, aging, and oral health. His special focus at NIH was in sociocultural determinants of health, and in advancing an integrated, trans-disciplinary, bio-psycho-social approach to health science, health promotion, prevention, and health care.

Anderson was also a tenured associate professor of medical psychology and of psychology at Duke University and as a professor of health and social behavior at the Harvard School of Public Health.

In 2012, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine), which is part of the National Academy of Sciences.

He has published dozens of scientific articles and authored and edited several books. He served as editor-in-chief of the two-volume Encyclopedia of Health and Behavior (2003) and as co-editor of Interdisciplinary research: Case studies from health and social science (2008). For over 12 years he was editor-in-chief of American Psychologist, the APA’s flagship journal.

With his wife, P. Elizabeth Anderson, he wrote a health book for the general public, Emotional Longevity: What Really Determines How Long You Live, which was released in 2003.

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