DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

ather refers to a sense of being purposively connected to others during an activity and
contributing as part of a collective to a higher goal by one’s actions. A sense of
competence comes from tasks that are optimally challenging – demanding and testing
while demonstrating good ability. Self-determination relates to the phenomenological
sense that an activity was undertaken of one’s own accord, out of no coercion or
pressure, but on one’s own terms, from a choice (Deci and Ryan, 1991).
The various problems associated with materialistic goals were found in Guy’s
story. Time with family and friends had depleted radically, his ability to find
fulfilment in his family and non-work activities had lessened and he had lost an
appreciation of small things. The recapture of the enjoyment of small things after the
crisis was encapsulated by his experience in the Rockies, during which he felt at one
with the beauty of the mountains. After a lessening of his materialistic pre-crisis
values, the activities that Guy takes up in the latter stages of the crisis transition, such
as dancing, reading, walking, spending time with his children, are enjoyable and
rewarding in themselves and are therefore intrinsically motivated. These had been
sidelined in Guy’s pre-crisis extrinsically-focused quest to make money and to climb
the corporate ladder. So over the period of crisis there would seem to be a clear shift
away from an extrinsic orientation towards intrinsically motivated activities. When
intrinsic motivation is very strong, it is also expressed as a “passion” for an activity
(Amiot, Vallerand & Blanchard, 2006) and may lead to “passionate involvement”
(Waterman et al., 2003). Guy correspondingly describes “pursuing with a passion”
(Emails, p.2) his new career of applying spiritual principles in the workplace.
Inter-Relating Findings from Study 1 and Study 2
From Study 1 emerged a pattern of phases, which cut across the flow of a
crisis episode to divide a crisis into four definable segments. Phase 1 was referred to
as “Locked In” and described the early crisis experience of being trapped and
frustrated at home and/or at work. This was followed by separation and upheaval in
Phase 2, called “Separation”. Phase 3 is “Exploration”, in which a search for new
ideas and experimental activities occurs, and finally a new “Resolution” is found in
Phase 4. This phase structure holds for Guy’s case in the current study, but this is not
further validation of the model as his was one the cases from which the model was
derived. In this study, developmental themes were developed to organise codes into a
structure run alongside time, rather than across it, and so represent domains of
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