DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

and/or money, to being more intrinsically motivated. As described in the previous
chapters, intrinsically motivated action is its own reward due to its ongoing
satisfaction of needs and a sense of interest, fulfilment and fun. A “Dream” is a
related concept from Levison’s lifespan development theory – it is an enduring,
idealised, intrinsically motivating conception of what one could be or do in life.
There is a pre-crisis commonality among all six participants in terms of
intrinsic orientation. All six describe having had a vocation-based Dream when
young which is thwarted at some point in their teenage years so that they give up on it
as a realistic aspiration.
Claire as a teenager loved reading and learning, and she had the aspiration to
become an academic. Her Dream was “becoming a philosopher, becoming a brilliant
academic and going into the ivory towers of Cambridge.” (p.15). But when she
applied to Cambridge for a degree, she didn’t get the scholarship she needed, and her
parents couldn’t afford to pay for her to go, so she went to secretarial college instead,
which meant her aspiration was thwarted.
Victoria’s Dream in her small village in rural Italy was simply learning
English and going to university:
“Yes, one of my dreams was to go to university, and the other was to learn
English…but it was something that I was fantasising, but I couldn’t believe I could
change my life so much.” (p.2)
As Victoria emphasises, at this stage the Dream is an unrealistic fantasy. This
aspiration to go to university was thwarted due to the pressure to take care of her
mother, the conformist atmosphere in her village, and also due to her lack of
confidence.
Lilly’s Dream as a teenager was to become a psychologist, inspired by her
psychology teacher at school. She applied to study psychology at university, but
didn’t get in, as she underperformed in her A-Levels due to problems at home. She
ended up going through clearing, and doing a course in Linguistics instead.
Rob’s youthful Dream was also to study psychology, and like Lilly his goal
was thwarted when he failed to get the grades to study it at university:
“My first love was psychology, and I wanted to go to St Andrews to study
psychology in the child psychology unit. I was particularly taken with that, that is
what I wanted to do, and I didn’t get the grades to get in. I was a bit gutted.” (p.3)
147