DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

sense of self, but meanwhile the self is a “floating” self, without stability or clear
form, and this compounds the anxiety and confusion of mid-crisis. Combs, in his
research on crisis, also found this in-between identity, which he called a “liminal
state”:
“To be in a liminal state is to be at the threshold between two conditions, yet fully
inhabiting neither. Liminality is experienced when we make transitions between
periods in our lives…Liminal states are often stressful and disorienting. The familiar
is dissolving and a new place to stand has yet to be found…. Liminal states hold great
possibilities and also real dangers, because in them we are bound by neither the past
nor the future, and our fate is open-ended.” (Combs, 2003, p.249-250)
Moratoria - Revisiting the Old and Reaching for the New
Phase 3 of the emerging dynamic is a time of both inner reflection and outer
exploration, reigniting the growth that was felt to be stifled prior to crisis. This
involves attempting to differentiate personal wants and goals from those that originate
from controlling or influential others, and were adopted out of social compliance, not
out of wilful choice. The search in Phase 3 is to find activities which feel “selfauthored”;
this search for self-determination promotes a sense of intrinsic motivation.
Intrinsically motivated are enjoyable and fulfilling rather than instrumental or
obligated (Deci, 1971).
Phase 3 has characteristics of a ‘moratorium’; an episode during which a
person takes a sanctioned time-out to explore new alternatives in life, including roles,
attitudes, relationships and meanings. Moratorium was initially thought to be an
adolescent phenomenon, but Marcia gave support to the possibility of moratoria at all
life stages; he found that all crises contain some non-committal exploration through
alternative solutions and alternative identities (Marcia, Waterman, Matteson, Archer
& Orlofsky, 1993). McAdams also found them described throughout life stories
(McAdams, 1993), and suggested a retrospective element to moratorium occurs
alongside a consideration of future possibilities. Correspondingly, there are examples
in the current study of individuals who not only explore new facets of the self, but
also search through earlier aspects of themselves that they have lost on the path to
adulthood and social integration. There are reports of re-finding passions and
interests, such as art, science or poetry, which were favourite pastimes when young
but disappeared under the weight of job and family obligations.
For around two thirds of participants, Phase 3 involved commencing a
course of further study, in order to constructively build towards a new life
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