On Managing Midlife Transitions in Career and Family

O'Connor, Dennis J.; Wolfe, Donald M.

doi:10.1177/001872678704001202

Cited by 31 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Similarities include the presence of stressful endings, new beginnings, self-questioning, instability of life structure and emotional upheaval; these occur in crises in early adulthood and midlife too (Levinson, 1986;O'Connor & Wolfe, 1987). There are also several key differences: Firstly, crisis events earlier in adulthood are defined by the challenges of becoming embedded in adult roles that come to feel ensnaring and engulfing , while later life crisis is defined by the challenges and emotional difficulties of losing those roles, as well as feelings of marginalisation and isolation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the popular press and academic literature, crisis episodes have been most commonly associated with the forty to fifty age range, via the concept of the midlife crisis (Lachman, 2004;O'Connor & Wolfe, 1987). Developmental crises in younger adults have now also been recognised, due to the work of Levinson (1986) on the presence of crises in the 'Age 30…”

Section: Later-life Crisis: Towards a Holistic Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Later-Life Crisis: Towards a Holistic Model

Robinson

Stell

2014

J Adult Dev

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Although crisis episodes have been most commonly associated with midlife, research on crisis after midlife is marked by its absence. Here we report findings from a retrospective interview-based study of 21 adults about crises occurring between the ages of 60 and 69 in the first attempt to explore the holistic structure, process and experiential contents of later-life crisis. Basing our analysis on existing models of late-adult development, four key areas of later-life crisis were explored: (1) life events and relationships, (2) self and identity, (3) motivation and goals, and (4) cognition and affect. We were able to define a provisional common holistic process to later-life crisis episodes, shared by all participants, which included multiple loss-inducing stressful life events that provide a cumulative challenge to coping resources, a struggle with ego integrity, increased mortality awareness, and the rescaling of goals, activities and roles in ways that pertain to re-engagement, continuity or disengagement. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of adult development in later life whilst strategies are proposed for future research on this understudied area.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Later-life Crisis: Towards a Holistic Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Later-Life Crisis: Towards a Holistic Model

Robinson

Stell

2014

J Adult Dev

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“…Marcia, 1966;Marcia 1993) and midlife crisis (e.g. Freund & Ritter, 2009;Lachman, 2004;O'Connor & Wolfe, 1987). The research programme described in this article aims to fill this vacuum -it proposes a holistic model of early adult crisis, and a functional developmental role for crisis in relation to the tasks and challenges of early adulthood as a psychosocial life stage.…”

Section: The Holistic Phase Model Of Early Adult Crisismentioning

confidence: 99%

The Holistic Phase Model of Early Adult Crisis

2013

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The holistic phase model of early adult crisis 2 AbstractThe objective of the current study was to explore the structural, temporal and experiential manifestations of crisis episodes in early adulthood, using a holistic-systemic theoretical framework.Based on an analysis of 50 interviews with individuals about a crisis episode in this phase of life, a holistic model of early adult crisis was developed. The model comprises four phases; (1) Locked-in, (2) Separation/Time-out, (3) Exploration and (4) Rebuilding, which in turn have characteristic features at four levels -person-in-environment, identity, motivation and affect-cognition. A crisis starts out with a commitment at work or home that has been made but is no longer desired, and this is followed by an emotionally volatile period of change as that commitment is terminated. The positive trajectory of crisis involves movement through an exploratory period towards active rebuilding of a new commitment, but 'fast-forward' and 'relapse' loops can interrupt Phases 3 and 4, and make a positive resolution of the episode less likely. The model shows conceptual links with life stage theories of emerging adulthood and early adulthood, and it extends current understandings of the transitional developmental challenges that young adults encounter.Keywords: Early adulthood, emerging adulthood, early adult crisis, life structure, quarterlife crisis The holistic phase model of early adult crisis 3 The holistic phase model of early adult crisisThe phenomenon of developmental crisis during early adulthood has received little attention in the lifespan development literature, in marked contrast to the body of research on adolescent crisis (e.g. Marcia, 1966;Marcia 1993) and midlife crisis (e.g. Freund & Ritter, 2009;Lachman, 2004;O'Connor & Wolfe, 1987). The research programme described in this article aims to fill this vacuum -it proposes a holistic model of early adult crisis, and a functional developmental role for crisis in relation to the tasks and challenges of early adulthood as a psychosocial life stage.The meta-theoretical perspective that was used to guide the research was the holistic development paradigm articulated by neo-Eriksonian theorists such as Levinson (1986) and also in a more systemic way by Wapner and Demick (1998). The paradigm conceives of development as a lifelong process of orthogenetic change that proceeds inter-dependently on biological, psychological and socio-cultural levels, and views the developing person as more than the sum of his/her parts. This approach conceives of optimal development as proceeding towards an integrated person-environment state, which is flexible, hierarchically integrated and stable (Wapner & Demick, 1998).The person-environment matrix is stabilized at any point during development by way of a life structure (Levinson, 1986). A life structure is a developmentally-achieved integration of internal structures such as values, goals and beliefs, allied to external structures such as roles, commitments, relationships and activities...

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“…There is evidence that similar influences may also affect managers' ideas about career success as they become older. The relative importance of external material criteria for career success seems to wane as managers age, with managers in their late thirties and forties becoming more concerned with criteria for success such as autonomy and influence (Kalleberg and Losocco, 1983;O'Connor and Wolfe, 1987). This suggests that definitions of career success are dynamic not static, reflecting the developmental stages through which managers pass (Levinson, 1978;Super, 1980), as well as a psychological adjustment to perceptions of the kind of success which is actually available to individuals.…”

Section: The Theoretical Need For a Conceptualization Of Career Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

What it Means to Succeed: Personal Conceptions of Career Success Held by Male and Female Managers at Different Ages

Sturges

1999

British J of Management

235

248

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This paper describes the findings of a qualitative study which analyses how managers define career success for themselves on their own terms. In exploring career success from the perspective of the individual, not the organization, the research attempts to fill an identifiable gap in the career literature. The paper examines the criteria which individuals use to describe what career success means to them, and expresses them by means of a series of orientational categories – Climbers, Experts, Influencers and Self‐Realizers – which classify the different ways in which managers talk about career success. The variations in the way that the male and female, and older and younger, research participants describe what career success means to them are discussed and compared. The women managers and older managers who took part in the study appear less inclined to define career success in terms of hierarchical and financial progression: the paper considers the implications of this for individuals and for organizations.

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On Managing Midlife Transitions in Career and Family

Cited by 31 publications

References 2 publications

Later-Life Crisis: Towards a Holistic Model

Later-Life Crisis: Towards a Holistic Model

The Holistic Phase Model of Early Adult Crisis

What it Means to Succeed: Personal Conceptions of Career Success Held by Male and Female Managers at Different Ages

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