Midlife Crisis Research Paper

Growing up we always hear people around us or in movies talk about a “mid-life crises,” and we’ve never really understood what they talk about because we hadn’t experienced it ourselves. In Gail Sheehy’s essay “Predictable Crises of Adulthood,” she writes about each a crisis that can occur in each stage of a human’s life. She break’s our lives into six stages. “Pulling Up Roots”, “Trying Twenties”, “Catch-30,” “Rooting and Extending”, “The Deadline Decade”, and “Renewal or Resignation”. I can’t relate to all but one of these topics because I have not lived them. The only stage I can relate to is Pulling Up Roots, because I just turned 18 and still learning about life. From my experience, Sheehy’s crises claim in the Pulling Up Roots stage is accurate for me.

Mid-life crisis explain as a extremity in a middle ages, in people’s lives. Where middle ages may face a disappearance of identity and reduce their self-confidence. Midlife crisis has been known around the world for many years but has not always been believed by everyone because not everyone face it. Mid-life crisis is more of a normal change period that generally happen the time of a major life event that emphasizes getting older. A midlife crisis is something more person dependent rather than something everyone experiences. People go through many different experiences in their lives that happen at different time periods in their lives. Some experiences may seem worse than others and can make people feel like they will never be equal to anyone. On the other side, Some people may not experience any type of crisis during their middle age years. As we grow older we begin to put people aside and focus on new experiences in our lives such as having a career or having children. I accept that midlife crises do exist, but I am sure not everyone believe the same because some people might not happen .

In middle adulthood there are many changes that occur physically, psychologically, and socially as explained in the above passages. Yet, some say that this is the best time of their life, they experience enhanced self-confidence, great sex lives, career success, and enhanced brain functions. Middle age adults are better equipped to make better life choices and decisions and not worry so much about the negative parts of life. Their problem solving skills are greater which allows them to reason more creatively. They are able to enjoy sex freely without the worries of getting pregnant and they feel more confident with their partners. In general they are happier about life and look forward to enjoying the rest of their lives.

The area of greatest disagreement was the area of midlife crisis. “Levinson (1978) views midlife as a crisis, arguing that the middle-aged adult is suspended between the past and the future, trying to cope with this gap that threatens life’s continuity (Santrock, 2013 p. 512). This is particularly interesting because the female responded that she was experiencing a midlife crisis and the male did not. However, in this instance, the female is still in the workforce and the male is retired. The experiences that the female related closely resemble the conditions of the male during the time of Levinson’s study. In addition to still working, the female had recently changed her place of employment, and within the past five years lost both of her parents. While the male was retired and took care of the house and children, his stress level had been reduced as he became the primary care giver to this in-laws and their passing reduced his overall daily responsibilities. Both maintain close relationships with their siblings and frequently get together with them.

The world around us has many current issues that relate one way or another to family and consumer science. I recently read an article written by Joan R. McFadden and Kay T. Rawson Swan, entitled “Women During Midlife: Is It Transition or Crisis?”. The article talked about how women go through the different stages of menopause also known as mid-life crisis to some. With a mid-life crisis it is stated to involve a feeling of loneliness, a period of wanting to find one’s self in the world, a time to reinvent yourself, to live outside of a woman’s everyday life style, and to experience changes in health and family roles. For many women these statements are said to be true, but not all women are the same.

Fist coming into Human Development class my understanding of a mid-life crisis, was when a middle aged person splurges and buys a new sports car, or such like outrageous items. Or when a husband and wife split-up for a year and they do not even really know why. Maybe even when someone seems not quite themselves or just crazy, and in the back of your mind you’re saying they need to see a doctor or take their medicine as prescribed. In our text and from other sources it explains mid-life crisis in several theories but the one that I mostly agree with is Levinson’s.

Someone who would be going through a “Mid-life crisis” is that of the age between 40 and 60("Development in midlife," 2004). It is the point during our lives where we go through periods of self-doubt, this is a natural and normal process ("Development in midlife," 2004). A mid-life crisis can be triggered by different experiences, for instance, children leaving the home, death of a parent or someone close, mid-life transition to

Stagnation involves a minimal amount of interest in work or self- improvement, a lack of concern for young people and putting your own security and comfort over personal sacrifice and challenge. There are many events that can be part of the midlife change, such as children leaving home and starting their own life, changes at work that can affect their career, family members or friends becoming ill or passing away and a body that is slowly getting older and not behaving in the same way it used to when that person was younger. These are all normal events that happen as a part of life, but during midlife these changes are far more prominent. Fear of loss and change can often cause people to try and manage this decline and slow down the impact of these natural events, but then that person can become mired in stagnation and fear. They keep thinking about the past as a coping mechanism for not moving forward and looking towards the future. If a person has a fear of change and they are not able to let go of things and move forward, it can make them want to remain in this fixed state, even if they are suffering. This fear of change can trap people into a nostalgia that keeps them thinking about past times that they believe were better or constantly talking about what they had before. If a person suffers a loss such as a bereavement, a relationship or friendship ending, a

Sheehy goes on to tell us more about the crisis of life. The next three crises I cannot relate to since I’m in the trying twenties. Catch-30 emphasizes major growth towards becoming a mature adult. We tend to outgrow our current career and our trying twenty tendencies. Everything takes a turn in your thirties. I think this is where you really start to mature as an adult. I know a lot of factors can force responsibility on you to reach this peak earlier such as having a baby or getting married young. Sheehy states “One of the common responses is tearing up of the life we spent most of twenties putting together” (7). We turn our goals into more realistic ones and we yearn for change. Whether it’s changing jobs or creating a family. In our thirties men and women feel as if they are restricted and have a need to go above and beyond. Couples mutuality and grow in separate directions.

1) The research study has stated that older adults change their death coping strategies later in the years as opposed to younger adults. Does the mid-life crisis period apply to this concept of older adults realizing that their death is nearby? (General Discussion paragraph 2)

I watched another man having a mid-life crisis, pull out of the Novak car dealership across the street in a silver convertible. My uncle ran that dealership. I scanned my dad’s car lot; the cars were much older with red numbers written on the windshields, and they were Hondas rather than BMWs. Dad was having an intense phone call in the dimly lit back office. From where I sat at the desk, I could hear snippets of the conversation that filtered through the gap through the door.

For this paper, I had the privilege of interviewing one of my friend’s grandmother. Her name is Jamie Hansen and she is a healthy and active 68-year-old grandmother. In the beginning of the phone call, I asked some basic background knowledge questions such as how many grandkids she has and if she was a widower or not. I found out that she and her husband are happily married and that she has six grandchildren. As I got to know her more I started asking questions that pertained to the interview aspect of social theories. I figured out that Mrs. Hansen’s responses led to an application of the continuity and socioemotional selective theories.

Middle adulthood is a complex time period that requires a multidimensional outlook to understand all of the processes and changes that are taking place. The many changes during middle adulthood include physical, cognitive and social differences. Many of these changes create significant stress and it is important to understand ways of coping with the anxiety. Many of these coping mechanisms include mindfulness and cultivating a sense of self-efficacy and mastery (pg. 482). There are many changes during middle adulthood that may require stress management techniques and interventions.

The stage that follows early adulthood is known as middle adulthood where people are generally caught between being productive and being stagnant. This stage reflects the need to create a living legacy: they would either need to feel they have become an important figure for the next generation to follow or they would develop a sense of purposelessness which is generally known as a “mid-life crisis”. This crisis can be solved by having the adults care and nurture children or help the fore-coming generation in other ways or means, however if the crisis remains the person would persist in random non-age-appropriate behavior as well as a continued feeling in stagnation. During this stage adults lose some of their physical aspects as their muscular strength, ability and agility weakens. Women will go through a menopausal

Middle-aged adults experience change in many different areas of their life at this time, they will find that not only their health is changing, but their appearance, their family, their thinking, and their emotions are changes as well. When discussing people that fall into the middle adulthood age of life, the term “midlife crisis” is often used, but according to an article titled Middle Adulthood Developmental Psychology, “most people during middle adulthood are satisfied and pleased with their lives”, ("Physical Changes," 2008-2013, expression 1). This article also states that the age range for middle adulthood is approximately age thirty-five to sixty-four. Midlife crisis is a when an individual views themselves and are unhappy with