DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

18/2/05
A circumstance conspires to block key desires and goals within a person. This creates a sense of being
trapped, blocked, pressured, so that the tension to actualise the desires grows and grows. When the
tension is released, at some key juncture or moment, then the stored up energy, like the steam in
pressure cooker, comes whizzing out which gives the energy for taking initiatives that might have
taken longer to get to otherwise.
How inarticulate is that!
18.2.05
Thoughts: lack of financial amongst ladies may be due to the selective nature of narrative, in which
people prioritise certain aspects of the story to tell, or it may be that financial crisis is something that a
man encounters more often than a woman.
18.2.05
Clearly a number of narratives bring in the issue of society itself, and the crisis as being partly a
reaction to the way in which society is set up, what it advocates and what it prohibits. Although none
of the crises, perhaps with the exception of Rachel, are explicitly causally linked to society, in the case
of Angela, Henry, Gemma and others, there is some part of the interview which sees the crisis as
stemming from society itself, and that some part of the resolution was a rejection of that aspect of
society. This is done by suggesting that the problem in question in the marriage or in the job was in
some sense a culturally sanctioned practice more generally, and therefore was in some sense the
responsibility of society.
14.4.05
I’m thinking that trapped could be illustrated in the same way as Bronfrenbrenner does, with one of the
super-ordinate systems impinging and trapping the person in a current, undesired state. Thus one could
establish where the oppressive force is coming from, or is appraised to be coming from.
Feeling trapped is an interesting one. Trapped by circumstance. But in the end, other than being in
prison, being held hostage or other such coercive situations, we invariably do have a choice, and so are
willing co-conspirators in our own trapping.
Anyway, what does trapped mean? Not being able to head in the directions that you want and you
intend. Not being able to forge the future that is line with your values, concerns and goals.
29/4/05
Re accidental vs developmental
This distinction isn’t holding up in my research – its more hazy than that. It seems that no event is
entirely without influence of the subject in question, bar perhaps bereavement, which I am not
including. Being fired, a divorce, post-natal stuff, having an affair, lusting over someone you can’t
have. There are external issues yes, but there are volitional, un-coerced choices being made by
participants in question too, which contribute to the situation. And those experiences that come from
internal build up are related to external events too, which act as catalysts for change or turning points or
key benchmarks in the story. It is far more messy than Caplan would ever have imagined.
28/4/05
Going back to study either during or after the crisis:
Mary, Camilla, Scarlet, Angela, Kathy, Rachel, Violet, Dan, Neil, Lynne, (sort of – starts poetry and
joins a poetry club), Frances, George
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