Annotated Bibliography: The Midlife Crisis

Lachman, M. (2004). Development in midlife. Annual review of psychology, 55(), 305-331. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141521

This article researched the central themes and issues that occur during midlife, such as work/life balance and family responsibilities in the midst of psychological changes that are associated with aging. Not only are adults in midlife caring for their own children, but many are caring for their aging parents which can cause stress and overload for the caregiver.  As a practice, the field of midlife development is sparse because so much focus is put on child development and because the assumption that this time in life is relatively quiet and not full of development. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 2000 there were 73.6 million middle-aged adults so this is clearly a large population worth studying.

The study focused on the baby boom generation and how they as a cohort experienced midlife differently from other cohorts of people.  The baby boomers had a unique set of experiences as they progressed through life: demographic, historical and societal changes. There are so many of them, which causes competition in the job market. This group experienced the Great Depression and the Korean and Vietnam wars which helped shape them and their socioeconomic status. The cultural emphasis on youthful appearances have influenced the baby boomers and their use of medical procedures to stay youthful looking.

An interesting aspect of this study is the “subjective age” or the self-defined age that constitutes midlife when, in fact, it’s a stage of development that lasts from 20-40 years. A lot can happen during these decades (having teenage children, career ups and downs, having an empty nest, becoming grandparents, etc.). Most people associate midlife with a “crisis” which is a cultural stereotype, more than a reality since only a  small percentage experience this, in fact only 26% of participants over the age of 40 reported a crisis. (Eichorn et al. 1981). The ultimate question, then, is a crisis unique to an individual or the cohort generation that they belong to. For some, midlife can be a time of crisis but for others it’s viewed as the peak of their lives. I hope to look at it this way!

Theories that apply include:  Jung’s theory of midlife and the individuation process which balances and integrates all aspects of the psyche. He thought the transition to this stage is difficult and without specific goal-setting and intention could cause a crisis. Eriksons’s 8 stages of life indicate that all aspects of life involve a crisis, but this article is good at pointing out that this time of life is so large that there are too many irregularities and variabilities during this stage of life to accurately match Erickson’s stages. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model of human development, particularly the influence of the family and neighborhood (microsystem) and family/friends and the media (exosystem) are applicable in midlife studies as well.

Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline. Baltes, Paul B. Developmental Psychology, Vol 23(5), Sep 1987, 611-626. http://0-dx.doi.org.skyline.ucdenver.edu/10.1037/0012-1649.23.5.611

This article focuses on life-span development which looks at change and constancy of behavior over a life course. Looking at midlife in the context of the entire lifespan rather than by itself is a helpful tool when considering it as a life stage, instead of an isolated crisis without context. Midlife can be seen as a stage of life that has both gains and losses, then, which make it less of a “crisis” and more a developmental stage across a lifespan.

Mackin, J. (1995). Women, stress and midlife. Human ecology forum, 23(4), 20+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA17839343&v=2.1&u=auraria_main&it=r&p=HRCA&sw=w&asid=31f06b7d62c54a6927037fa01c41f027

“What's a woman at midlife to do? Adapt, says Associate Professor Elaine Wethington: think of midlife as a time for reevaluation, not a crisis” (Mackin, 1995). This article discusses how, at its simplest, midlife is simply the realization that life is half over, but it also shows that its more complicated than that, especially for busy modern women today in America. Many of us have careers, children, spouses or significant others, and we are busy and tired. There is an “achievement crisis” where women do not think they have done enough yet in their lives. This follows Erikson’s Psychosocial Development theory of gererativity vs stagnation. Mackin discusses a “superwoman syndrome” where women think they have to do it all and do it all perfectly. She says that midlife is a time where we see that “individuals are products of a life history of events, relationships, and behaviors” (Mackin, 1995) which makes me think of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model of human development, particularly the influence of the family and neighborhood (microsystem) and family/friends and the media (exosystem) on women’s lives.

Losing control is a large part of why women perceive midlife as a crisis: they begin to lose control over their physical bodies as the aging process continues and as their children grow to become teenagers and eventually move out of the house. It’s how we respond to these developmental achievements that will make it seem as growth instead of a crisis.

Wethington, E. (2000). Expecting stress: Americans and the ‘midlife crisis’. Motivation and Emotion, 24(2), 85-103. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1005611230993

This study surveyed 724 participants on the popular term “midlife crisis” to try and define this term and see if it is equally experienced. Many studies before this one indicate that this crisis is not universal and that people who turn 40 do not necessarily enter a crisis mode. Erikson saw this stage of midlife as a struggle between generativity and stagnation. Levinson and colleagues (1978) saw midlife as a transition over time related to personality development and later did a study on women only (1998).

Studies indicate that stress is not statistically more during midlife than in early adulthood, in fact studies who that stress should be higher in early adulthood than mid-adulthood when early career stress and marital relationships are just starting to be developed. So, even though  unfounded and with more stressful events expected in early adulthood, the notion of midlife crisis is still part of our cultural language and is more of a cultural belief than a universally experienced thing.

Life course theory would say that normal psychological development involves transitions, which are marked by the beginning or end of an event in one’s overall life. It is how our culture decides to interpret these transitions that turns this point in our human development into a crisis.

The majority of those surveyed indicated that their midlife crisis was due to an awareness of time passing, which indicates a fear of death that is an American obsession. Again, Bronfrenbrenner’s ecological systems and developmental niche are a theory supported by this culturally-mandated fear of death. 4.7% of male respondents blamed the crisis on job loss or job disappointment, which also reflects our cultural focus on career as a definition of who we are. Awareness of declining health was another reason for self-reported midlife crises.

McAdams, D. (2014). The life narrative at midlife. In B. Schiff (Ed), Reading personal narrative and the life course. New directions for child and adolescent development, 145, 57-69. Retrieved from http://0-dx.doi.org.skyline.ucdenver.edu/10.1002/cad.20067

Adult development focused on midlife in the 1980s with Levinson and Cohler. Cohler identified that being halfway through one’s life caused people to focus on the fact that half of their life was over and it caused a focus on mortality. Cohler viewed this stage as a positive, however, because adults tend to be more introspective and reflective during this stage. They also use past experiences to solve future problems, which is a positive development. Cohler was one of the first psychologists to recognize that humans thing of their lives in a narrative form - we tell stories to give us an understanding of who we were, who we are, and who we will become.

In midlife, our stories become focused on gernatritivty (Erikson’s theory): establishing and maintaining the next generation. So adults in midlife are concerned with parenting, teaching, mentoring, etc. This study found that generative adults had stories of personal redemption (although there are setbacks in life, these negative encounters are redeemed by positive outcomes as the person grows and develops). This makes me think of  the Hero’s Journey as a narrative model upon which to base one’s life story. This is also where religion or faith take place in one’s life: religious stories give people a framework with which to understand their own lives through. Culture is involved in this aspect as well (macrosystem) as it provides a menu of images, characters and metaphors upon with life stories are shaped.

Published online before print January 26, 2012, doi: 10.1177/0022167811433851 Journal of Humanistic Psychology October 2012 vol. 52 no. 4 479-503 Peak-Experiences Among Americans in Midlife Hoffman, Edward, et al.

In this study, 153 people ages 40-65 were surveyed about a recent joyful experience and its impact on their life outlook. First discussing William James and his optimistic view of adult personality growth, especially regarding religious conversion experiences, this article gives a very different view of midlife “crisis” which I appreciate. The article mentions religion being one way that leads to midlife reform/progress/potential.

Elliott Jaques, a psychologist, was the one who coined the phrase “midlife crisis”  in his article in 1965 which was published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. He thought that at age 35, adults focus on mortality and the life half over and that death is what comes next. The article touts that it’s a stretch to generalize an entire part of human development on a few case studies, which I am in agreement with.

Turning from this viewpoint of midlife as a crisis (as Erikson would put it too), the article focuses on Abraham Maslow who focused on peak experiences that were sometimes transformative in midlife. Self-actualization, creativity and concern for others were main aspects of Moslow’s self actualization theory. Maslow recognized that not all peak experiences change the person and that our experiences are all different, particularly between gender lines. Some examples of peak experiences can be becoming parents, going through childbirth, finding religion, having romantic love, etc.

The study confirmed that family togetherness was a frequently reported peak experience (25.9% of those surveyed) and that women reported family togetherness as a joyful thing more frequently than men (28.9% vs 21.6%). Other notable joyful experiences were the birth of a child (25.6%) and parental achievement/joy in raising children (17.4%). The total parenting categories reported as joyful were 78% of all interpersonal peak experiences in midlife, which is a pretty compelling argument to have children and underscores the theory of generativity by Erikson.