Career Crisis At Midlife Are More Than They're Cracked Up To Be.

From crisis to growth at midlife: Changes in personal paradigm

“…Yet even though the experience of transition and crisis has been thoroughly explicated, the actual process of transitions in adulthood has remained relatively unexplored until recently. Several recent works have focused more closely on just how these transitions proceed (Bridges, 1980;O'Connor andWolfe, 1986, 1987). Bridges richly portrays the many elements of transition and crisis using case study and mythological materials and has set forth a three-step model of transition: ending, neutral zone, and beginning.…”

“…With this five-step model, we further explored the specific contours of the midlife transition using quantitative data (O'Connor and Wolfe, 1987). We found that people in the different steps of transition varied in several systematic ways.…”

“…Returning to the question of growth at midlife, the Transition Sequence model (O'Connor and Wolfe, 1987 could equally result in a cycle or a spiral of development. While phase-like transitions are inevitable, stage-like growth and development are by no means guaranteed.…”

“…In the context of a spiral of development however, the transition sequence would seem to be a prime opportunity for paradigm shifts to take place. There is usually a phase of rising discontent where the individual has become dissatisfied with his or her current life arrangements (O'Connor and Wolfe, 1986). Typically, some crisis follows in the form of peaking negative emotions with some scope of real world changes.…”

“…While there are very real differences in the specific struggles of men and women at midlife (e.g. Jung, 1971; O'Connor and Wolfe, 1987), the process of questioning and re-working a paradigm at these higher levels is similar for the two groups as far as we know. The underlying dynamic is one of addressing undeveloped sides and striking new balance.…”