Education Empowers But Lessens Our Control Over Life

As people become more educated, they tend to earn more money and experience less financial strain, giving them a sense that they control their own fate. But the freedom associated with monetary gain is offset by other demands which the educated bear disproportionately: demanding professional lives, long work hours, and family matters than compete for their attention.

In a national sample of Canadian workers, government researchers found that the more education an individual has, the more likely they are to agree with statements such as: “I have little control over the things that happen to me” and “I often feel helpless in dealing with problems of life.”

Leader of the study, Professor Scott Schieman, Canada Research Chair in the Social Contexts of Health, said the most stressful factor in the lives of the well-educated are the competing demands of family life and a competitive career:

“While education is extremely critical for mastery, higher educational attainment also appears to introduce stressors that can dampen the psychological benefits.”

In his Big Think interview, Steven Hayes, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Nevada, makes an important point about how we tend to deal with anxiety. When we treat anxiety as something that must be diminished, we become anxious about our anxiety… Instead, says Hayes, we should treat our anxiety with dignity: