DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

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(1981) – narrative is seen to be structured to fit the vicissitudes of human experience and shapes of human development, not vice versa. All narratives portray the challenges of human life and development, and the very nature of development is progression through punctuated equilibrium; steady states interspersed with turbulent transitions. Narrative mirrors this form; stories move from a starting steady state to instability and dramatic actions to an end with a new steady state in order to represent the basic dynamic of development and human growth (Booker, 2004). Therefore the crisis phases represent both a developmental pattern and a narrative pattern. A further feature of autobiographical narrative mentioned in Chapter 2 was its proneness to distortion and inaccuracies. So we must ask how much of the crisis narratives told by participants was distortion and how much was an accurate representation of what happened during the periods that they recounted? To this very important question, my answer is that I cannot be sure. It is possible that the participant’s reflections of transformation, change and identity were glossed up, re-ordered or changed after the event to fit into their life story, and this is an issue that I take up in suggestions for further research later in this chapter. But as I described in Chapter 2 there is also the possibility that retrospective narratives improve understanding of events by giving extra information that a concurrent report does not have. The philosopher Kierkergaard (1838) said that life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards. By this he meant that a retrospective view gives us information on form, outcomes, context and effects of a life event that is essential to its understanding and is not present until the story is told later. If you will excuse a brief and rather non-scientific digression into metaphor, I will describe how I view the nature of nuclear-episode narratives, which is undoubtedly an optimistic one, but a defensible one. I see an autobiographical narrative as being like an impressionist painting of a past episode. In impressionist paintings details are glossed over, broad brush strokes sweep across the canvas, and artistic licence is employed to bring out the essence of a scene and to edit out less aesthetic elements. The human involvement in an impressionist painting is thoroughly apparent, but the great impressionist paintings bring a representational quality, a wholeness of composition and a sense of mood that a truly accurate photograph cannot produce. As it is with crisis narratives; the sense of human construction, the lack of systematic detail and the artistic selectivity are in evidence 185
throughout, and while this may gloss over some of the hard facts, it brings a sense of wholeness, underlying structure, coherence and meaningfulness that is unique to retrospective stories. In sum, impressionist paintings and narrative are both representative and interpretative. 10.4 Crisis and Levinson’s Theory of Early Adulthood Levinson’s theory of lifespan development suggests that crises occur not just in the more documented periods of adolescence and midlife, but also during the early adult period (Levinson, 1978; 1996). The findings from this thesis support Levinson’s assertion. Levinson also suggested that a crisis or transition in this age group may be related to the rejection of the Dream (Levinson et al., 1976). This again is supported by the findings from this thesis, for many participants described having renounced a passionate direction or vocation or interest in order to adapt to the constraints of early adulthood, and further described how this had contributed to crisis. They then went on to described how the Dream was recaptured or clarified as crisis receded in new intrinsically motivated activities and a new direction of growth, which is in line with what Levinson found. Levinson’s theory predicts three periods when crisis is likely to occur within early adulthood. The first is during the Entry Into the Adult World transition around the age of 18-22 (which is below the sampled age range of this study). The second is between the ages of 28-33 in what he called the Age 30 Transition, and the third is at the end, as the Midlife Transition starts. The crises of the participants in this thesis partially conform to this pattern, but also suggest two other crisis-prone periods. The ages of the twenty two participants from the three studies were distributed across the sampled fifteen year age band as shown in Figure 10. The diagram shows the ages that the peak of the crises episodes manifested (which generally were the ages at which separation from spouse and/or job occurred). Figure 10 – Ages of 22 Participants at Peak of Crisis Lilly Jack Rachel Camilla Claire Vern Rob George Frank Victoria Frances Gemma Neil Dan Angela Leon Mark Ben Guy Violet Anne Mary 25 30 35 40 186
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DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULT
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Acknowledgements I would like to th
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7 Study 2: Rescuing the Hijacked Se
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considered to be a constructive par
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models, psychodynamic theory, socia
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This literature review will act as
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stable structures, by the assimilat
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goal-directed sense, but there is a
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“Where such a Dream exists, we ar
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Table I. Caplan’s Four Phases of
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Table III. O’Connor and Wolfe’s
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“Having a crisis at the time is n
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1. Undergoing stressful experiences
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The store of self-knowledge provide
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has, according to Booker (2005), ev
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of which represents a more complex
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isolated set of me-facts but is dee
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terms. These kind of popularised th
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involves genuine integration of com
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Figure 5. Births within marriage an
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ecorded by the US Bureau of Labor S
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group data and statistical analysis
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cognitive dissonance theory on a si
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testing and theory-exemplification
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human agendas that shape knowledge.
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4. A Composite Qualitative Methodol
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thesis, and I shall later in this c
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Nonetheless it could also be argued
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IPA can employ any written data sou
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ecommended to use a homogenous samp
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Case summaries are another written
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similarities that bind clusters tog
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conclusions and findings in order t
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d) Resonance / Impact / Applicabili
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3. A consent form detailing the key
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Dear all, I am currently in the 1 s
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accurately restructure the events,
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for the whole gender, and then with
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Neil 30 IT manager N.A. Violet 36 A
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areas were covered spontaneously as
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indication of important development
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starting with female clusters and t
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6. Study 1 Results: An Emerging Cri
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This vignette is illustrative and i
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“By the time I moved into my own
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New vocational role In Phase 4, cri
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As Mary’s crisis emerges in her l
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Angela similarly learned to stand u
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university to do a degree in psycho
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of my building, heated through by i
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married with two children and was a
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acceptable.” (p.8). George was li
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“You know, I’d failed, it was t
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Phase 4 - Post-Crisis: Resolution A
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Phase 1 - Early Crisis: Constrictio
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In his early thirties, Leon finally
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Phase 1 - Early Crisis: Locked In A
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Phase 3 and 4: Exploration and Reso
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6.6 Summary of the 4-Phase Pattern
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can also subtly undermine personal
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George developed a party-guy person
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sense of self, but meanwhile the se
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process in order to help account fo
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Data Collection In order to gain su
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Brainstorm memo #2 - “Guy: proces
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Results 7.3 Summary of Key Events i
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“That’s a realisation looking b
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efore the crisis Guy had lost the f
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that were pushing upon me that this
Page 139 and 140: Guy relates this behaviour to his s
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Page 147 and 148: 8. Study 3: Crisis, Persona and the
Page 149 and 150: Peer pressure Need for social acce
Page 151 and 152: At the time of the crisis, Frank wa
Page 153 and 154: Frank’s young Dream was to become
Page 155 and 156: sham or an act. This dissonant dysf
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Page 159 and 160: “What I often refer to is a dress
Page 161 and 162: Claire described the business world
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Page 171 and 172: it leads to a lack of inner-outer b
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Page 175 and 176: 9. A Conjectural Model of Early Adu
Page 177 and 178: The motivation for entering into th
Page 179 and 180: Phase 2: Separation Life Situation:
Page 181 and 182: training programme, a philosophy de
Page 183 and 184: “But I am going for jobs for diff
Page 185 and 186: 9.3 Eight Theoretical Precepts on C
Page 187 and 188: homogeneity. For Jung, the removal
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Page 197 and 198: “In order to make commitments to
Page 199 and 200: Interactive Model and Smith’s Int
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Page 203 and 204: The Participant Feedback Exercise Y
Page 205 and 206: Question 3 asked whether the model
Page 207 and 208: 10.9 Reflexive Considerations: The
Page 209 and 210: work that suggested crisis does occ
Page 211 and 212: may be of benefit to bring others i
Page 213 and 214: In sum, the current study provides
Page 215 and 216: References Ainsworth, M. (1967). In
Page 217 and 218: Cabrera, N.J., Tamis-LeMonda, C.S.,
Page 219 and 220: Festinger, L., Riecken, H.W. & Scha
Page 221 and 222: Hudson, W.C. (1978). Persona and De
Page 223 and 224: Lincoln, Y.S. & Guba, E.G. (1985).
Page 225 and 226: Polkinghorne, D.E. (1988). Narrativ
Page 227 and 228: Smith, J. (1991). Conceiving Selves
Page 229 and 230: Appendices 224
Page 231 and 232: SELF - process and structure • Wh
Page 233 and 234: “Dancing became absolutely phenom
Page 235 and 236: STUDY 3 - First Interview Schedule
Page 237 and 238: o How would you describe your new j
Page 239 and 240: Materialism • How do you think yo
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• Are you still as driven by mone
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Mark Interview 2 Schedule Pre-Crisi
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Victoria - Interview 2 guide Pre-Cr
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Claire - Interview 2 guide Pre-cris
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Lilly - Interview 2 Schedule Pre-Cr
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Information Sheet for Studies 1 and
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APPENDIX C School of Psychology Bir
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and so there was unused freedom. Lo
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5/02/05 As the crisis progresses, G
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Violet memos 09.02.05 Once again we
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acceptance of genuine possibility,
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All these ladies and gents went bac
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accompany the post-partition state.
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lack of available time to pursue an
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Pragmatism and Pluralism properties
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Cyclical and iterative nature of re
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Gemma Interview 10 Case Summary Gem
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Coding Frame and Quotes 1. Backgrou
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were trying to crush it too.” 4
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3d) Separation from old self 3e) Ne
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Rob kids Working as advertising exe
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Table XIX: Case Ordered Matrix of P
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