mid-life crisis

(noun)

An emotional period of doubt and anxiety sometimes experienced by people who realize that their life is already half over.

Related Terms

  • intimacy

Examples of mid-life crisis in the following topics:

  • The Challenges of Adulthood

    • Similar to Erikson's theory of generativity vs. stagnation, a mid-life crisis usually occurs when a person starts to reflect on their own life, the time left in it, and what they have not yet accomplished in life.
    • The main triggers for a mid-life crisis include problems with work/career, trouble in a marriage, children growing up and leaving the home, or the death/aging of a person's parents.
    • Individuals experiencing a mid-life crisis may feel some of the following:
    • Some who experience a mid or quarter-life crisis struggle with how to cope and may engage in harmful behaviors, such as abuse of alcohol or drugs or excessive spending of money.
    • People experiencing a mid or quarter-life crisis generally feel anxious and unsure of themselves and the direction their life is taking.
  • Socioemotional Development in Adulthood

    • Both early and middle adulthood come with particular challenges; these challenges are at times referred to as "quarter-life crises" and "mid-life crises," respectively.
    • A quarter-life crisis typically occurs between the ages of 25 and 30.
    • The main triggers for a mid-life crisis include problems with work, trouble in a marriage, children growing up and leaving the home, or the aging or death of a person's parents.
    • Individuals having a mid-life crisis may experience some of the following:
    • Some who experience a quarter- or mid-life crisis struggle with how to cope and may engage in harmful behaviors, such as abuse of alcohol or drugs or excessive spending of money.
  • Socioemotional Development in Adolescence

    • Adolescence is the period of life known for the formation of personal and social identity.
    • Because choices made during adolescence can influence later life, higher levels of self-awareness and self-control in mid-adolescence will contribute to better decisions during the transition to adulthood.
    • Differentiation becomes fully developed by mid-adolescence.
    • Erikson determined that "identity achievement" resolves the identity crisis in which adolescents must explore different possibilities and integrate different parts of themselves before committing to their chosen identity.
  • Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

    • At each stage there is a crisis or task that we need to resolve.
    • and “What do I want to do with my life?”
    • When people reach their 40s, they enter the time known as middle adulthood, which extends to the mid-60s.
    • From the mid-60s to the end of life, we are in the period of development known as late adulthood.
    • However, people who are not successful at this stage may feel as if their life has been wasted.
  • Cognitive Development in Adulthood

    • Unlike our physical abilities, which peak in our mid-20s and then begin a slow decline, our cognitive abilities remain relatively steady throughout early and middle adulthood.
    • For example, adults show relatively stable to increasing scores on intelligence tests until their mid-30s to mid-50s (Bayley & Oden, 1955).
    • Cognitive processing speed slows down during this stage of life, as does the ability to solve problems and divide attention.
  • Socioemotional Development in Late Adulthood

    • Growing older means confronting many psychological, emotional, and social issues that come with entering the last phase of life.
    • As people approach the end of life, changes occur and special challenges arise.
    • As people enter the final stages of life, they have what Erik Erikson described as a crisis over integrity versus despair.
    • They may isolate themselves, contemplate suicide, or otherwise refuse to live life.
    • Acceptance: People realize that all forms of life, including the self, come to an end, and they accept that life is ending.
  • Preventing Psychological Disorders

    • Environmental influences include early childhood relationships and experiences (such as abuse or neglect), poverty, the effects of race and racism, and major life stressors (such as a breakup, the loss of a job, or the death of a loved one).
    • An example of a secondary prevention program is rape crisis counseling.
  • Evaluating the Psychodynamic Approach to Personality

    • This approach is particularly interesting in the relationship between conscious and unconscious motivation and how this dynamic might be influenced by experiences in early life.
    • Traumatic events can occur later in life and cause serious distress, such as with PTSD, and Freud's focus on childhood events did not account for phenomenon such as this.
    • Feminist Betty Friedan referred to Freud's concept of penis envy as a purely social bias typical of the Victorian era, and showed how the concept played a key role in discrediting alternative notions of femininity in the early to mid twentieth century.
  • Psychodynamic Psychology

    • By the mid-1940s and into the 1950s, the general application of the "psychodynamic theory" had been well established.
    • Freud's theory of psychoanalysis holds two major assumptions: (1) that much of mental life is unconscious (i.e., outside of awareness), and (2) that past experiences, especially in early childhood, shape how a person feels and behaves throughout life.
    • The superego is a person's conscience, which develops early in life and is learned from parents, teachers, and others.
  • Humanistic Therapy

    • Humanistic therapy helps individuals access and understand their feelings, gain a sense of meaning in life, and reach self-actualization.
    • The aim of humanistic therapy is to help the client develop a stronger, healthier sense of self, as well as access and understand their feelings to help gain a sense of meaning in life.
    • Humanistic psychology rose to prominence in the mid-20th century in response to the limitations of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B.
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