The document discusses the historical division between the humanities and sciences, known as the "two cultures" problem. It then summarizes the speaker's research on psychological well-being and key findings from the MIDUS study, including that purpose in life declines with age but some older adults maintain high purpose. The research also found that higher education and psychological well-being are linked to better health outcomes. The document argues that museums can help nurture well-being by providing cultural experiences and opportunities for learning, and that more research is needed on the role of arts experiences in promoting well-being.

1. Why Museums?:
Because They Enrich
the Human Experience
Carol D. Ryff
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Why Museums?
Association of Danish Museums
Aarhus, Denmark – March 10, 2015

2. Topics
Historical perspective on division between the
humanities and the sciences
The “two cultures” problem
My research on psychological well-being
Key questions & select findings (resilience)
MIDUS  multidisciplinary study of health
 What it neglects
 Relevant of the arts for promoting human
health and well-being

3. 1959 Lecture at Cambridge
 Snow was a scientist and a
novelist
 Perceived incomprehension
and mutual suspicion
between science and art
 Different ways of “knowing”
 Separate cultures of
human experience

4. Continued the tale:
 Returned to dawn
scientific revolution to
understand animosity
 Made a passionate
case that both are
needed – each does
something the other
cannot
 How to mend the gap
 dispense with
disciplinary
chauvinism

5. Perpetuates ponderous
philosophical debates:
 mind/body dualism,
 reductionism vs. holism
 quantitative vs. qualitative
 objective vs. subjective
ALTERNATIVE: go after
pragmatic questions that
require humanists and
scientists to work together:
e.g. Why Museums?
Historic significance of
this conference!

6. Other Relevant Happenings
 Royal Society for Public Health 2013 Report
 “Art, Health, and Well-Being”
 100+ pages of innovations linking art to health
(including museum experiences)
 New field:
“Health Humanities”
(Crawford et al., 2010, 2015)

7. Other Relevant Happenings
 University of Humanistic Studies (Utrecht)
“Not for Profit: Why Democracies
Need the Humanities” (Nussbaum, 2010)
Essential role of the arts in cultivating competent
and compassionate citizens

8. • How do we experience
art?
• How do we take it in?
• How do we understand
the meaning of artistic
products?
• History of museums:
capitalism, imperialism,
nationalism

9. • Element of passion in
all aesthetic perception
• the artist “does the deed
that breeds the emotion”
• Chapter: “The Act of
Expression”
• Chapter: “The Expressive
Object”
Challenge: connecting deep
understanding of art to
well-being and health

10. What is
Psychological Well-Being?
 Who has it?
 How does it matter for health?

11. My Formulation
 “Happiness is everything, or is it?: Explorations on the meaning of
psychological well-being” (Ryff, 1989, J of Personality & Social Psych)

12. Autonomy:
marching to
one’s own
drummer
Kjeragbolten, Norway

13. Environmental Mastery:
managing your external world

14. Personal Growth: making the most of
your talents and capacities
Imagerie
Pellerin
d’Epinal
(19th
century)

15. Positive Relations with Others:
taking care of your social ties

16. Purpose in Life: finding meaning and
direction in your life

17. Self-Acceptance: recognizing and
accepting your strengths and weaknesses
Self-portrait by Kseniya
Beliaeva, woman artist
from Belarus

18. • purpose in life
• personal growth
• positive relations with others
• environmental mastery
• self-acceptance
• autonomy
• happiness/pos affect
• life satisfaction
Contemporary Indicators of PWB
Eudaimonic
(Ryff, 1989, J. of
Pers. & Soc. Psych)
Hedonic
(Diener et al., 1999,
Psych. Bulletin)

20. 500+ Scientific Publications
Psychometric Properties
Adult Development & Aging
Personality Correlates
Family Life
Work & Volunteer Engagements
Health & Biomarkers
Intervention/Clinical Studies
Ryff (2014)
Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics

21. www.midus.wisc.edu

24. What have we learned?
 aging and purpose in life
[relevance for museums]

25. Source: MIDUS I
25-39
14.5
15.0
15.5
16.0
16.5
17.0
17.5
18.0
18.5
Young Midlife Older
40-59 60-74
Purpose in Life
Env. Mastery
Positive Relations
Autonomy
Females
Self-Acceptance
Per. Growth

26. Purpose in Life
Env. Mastery
Positive Relations
Autonomy
Males
Self-Acceptance
Per. Growth
14.5
15.0
15.5
16.0
16.5
17.0
17.5
18.0
18.5
Young Midlife Older
25-39 40-59 60-74
Source: MIDUS I

27. Longitudinal Decline (9-10 years)
in Purpose in Life
14
15
16
17
18
T1 T2 T1 T2 T1 T2 T1 T2 T1 T2
35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75-84
Average
score
Age at T2

28. BUT some older persons
maintain high purpose in life
(resilience vis-à-vis challenges of aging)
Those who do:
 live longer
have less disease
practice better health behaviors

29. Those with higher purpose in life live longer.
(Boyle et al., Psychosom Med, 2009)

30. Purpose in life is protective against Alzheimer’s
and mild cognitive impairment.
(Boyle et al., Archives Gen Psychiatry, 2010)

31. Purpose in life modifies association between Alzheimers
disease pathology and cognitive function
(Boyle et al., Arch Gen Psych, 2012)

32. High purpose in life reduces risk of myocardial
infarction among adults with coronary heart disease
(Kim et al., J Behav Med, 2013)
Those with higher purpose in life have
reduced risk of stroke
(Kim et al., J Psychosomatic Res, 2013)
Higher purpose in life more preventive health
behaviors (cholest. tests, cancer screenings).
(Kim, Strecher, & Ryff, PNAS, 2014)

33. *continued learning
*cultural experience
*the arts
Time spent in museums
What nurtures purposeful
life engagement?
(at all ages)

34. What have we learned?
 Education attainment
and well-being
[relevance for museums]

35. 13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
<12(HS) 12(HS) 12+(SC) 16+(C)
Self-Acceptance
Purpose in Life
Environ. Mastery
Positive Relations
Personal Growth
Autonomy
Women
Education Source: MIDUS I

36. Self-Acceptance
Purpose in Life
Environ. Mastery
Positive Relations
Personal Growth
Autonomy
Men
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
<12(HS) 12(HS) 12+(SC) 16+(C)
Education Source: MIDUS I

37. “Health Inequalities”
 Those of lower
socioeconomic standing
have poorer health
BUT some are resilient
[relevance for museums]

38.  Lower educational status  higher levels of
IL-6 BUT effect is buffered by high
psychological well-being
Morozink et al., 2010
Health Psychology

39. Lower educational attainment predicts
higher levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6)
Interleukin-6
• marker of inflammation
involved in etiology of
numerous diseases
(cardiovascular, cancer,
rheumatological,
osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s)

40. High psychological well-being protects
against high IL-6 among the less educated

41. *continued learning
*cultural experience
*the arts
Time spent in museums
What nurtures well-being?
(among the disadvantaged)

42. Summary Points
Well-being is multifaceted
It matters for health
It needs to be nurtured
Museums can provide vital nutrients
Contemporary health research needs
connection to the arts

44. What is Missing in MIDUS?
Encounters with the arts
 Visual arts (museums, galleries, streets)
 Music
 Literature/poetry
 Dance
 Film/theatre
 Nature

45. Guiding Vision:
Need to exploit
untapped synergies
between art and science

46. We work in the dark, we do what we
can, we give what we have.
Our doubt is our passion, and our
passion is our task.
The rest is the madness of art.
Henry James
(1843 – 1916)
Thanks!
cryff@wisc.edu