Finishing off The Life Cycle
Erikson stages 5-8
Levinson
Criticisms of Levinson
Death & Bereavement
References
• Active Psychology Irene Taylor (Ed)
• Developmental psychology McIlveen and
Goss
• Care in Practice
Erikson
Your Life Span
• Exercise
• Draw a lifeline on a sheet of paper and
identify what were the critical events for
you in shaping your life.
Exercise
•
How would you define ageing? Is it a positive or negative process? What is the view
held in our society? How old do you feel? Answer the following questions on 'The
Ages of Me' taken from Kastenbaum (1979):
1
2
3
4
5
6
In other people's eyes, I look as though I am about _____ years of
age.
In my own eyes, I judge my body to be like that of a person of about
___ years of age.
My thoughts and interests are like those of a person about ___ years of
age.
My position in society is like that of a person about ___ years of age.
Deep down inside, I really feel like a person about ___ years of age.
and just one more question:
I would honestly prefer to be about __years of age.
Life Span Approach
Life Span Approach
• Bakes, cited in Lewis (1996), noted three main influences (see figure
23.8):
• normative age-graded influences which refers to experiences due to
biological maturation (such as puberty) or cultural norms (such as
age of starting school)
• normative history-related influences which demonstrate the effects
of generational changes; for example, the lower age of puberty over
the last century (biological), and the raising of the school leaving age
from 14 years to 16 years (and later for many), since the Second
World War
• non-normative life-events are such critical life-events which do not
necessarily affect everyone, such as a motor accident or divorce,
which nevertheless influence the course of development.
Critical Life Events
• Neugarten (1987) distinguished between:
normative changes such as leaving
school, marriage, parenting, retirement
non-normative changed such as divorce,
sudden death, unemployment.
Schlossberg 1984, 1989) noted four kinds of
transition:
• Anticipated transitions which are events planned for and
rehearsed, such as going to school, starting a job, getting married,
having a child.
• Unanticipated transitions which are unexpected events not
allowing for preparation, such as losing a job, failing an exam,
enforced retirement.
• Non-event transitions which are expected changes which do not
occur, such as not getting married, not being able to have children,
an expected promotion which doesn't occur, retirement not being
possible because the income is needed.
• Chronic hassle transitions in which situations can result in a long
drawn-out period before action can be taken, such as marriage
breakdown, terminal illness in someone close, problems in the
Importance of Looking at
Adaptations
• This approach recognises that adaptation
is necessary for all these transitions, that
what is an expected event for one person
may be unexpected by another, and that
not all transitions create a crisis.
Exercise
• Social Re-adjustment Scale
Levinson
.
• Season’s of a Man’s Life Approach to
Early and Middle Adulthood
Levinson’s Stages
Levinson & Erikson
Mid- life Crisis
• 'They question nearly every aspect of their
lives and feel that they cannot go on as
before. They will need several years to
form a new path or modify the old one'.
Mid-Life Crisis
• Like Erikson, Levinson and his colleagues see
crisis as inevitable. As they note:
• 'It is not possible to get through middle adulthood without having at least a moderate crisis
either the mid-life transition or the age-50
transition'.
• They also see crisis as necessary. If we do not
soul searching, we will:
• 'pay the price in a later developmental a
progressive withering of the self and structure
minimally connected to the self.
First Criticism of Levinson
• Some researchers found the mid-life crisis
to be not as universal as Levinson found,
and that only about 10% of people feeling
they had experienced a crisis.
• Rutter suggests that going through middle
age without a crisis is actually a predictor
of favourable future development
• i.e. lack of emotional disturbance predicts
better functioning.
Two other components of the mid
life crisis
• The first is a wide range of adaptations in the life pattern.
• Some of these stem from role changes that produce
fairly drastic consequences, such as divorce, remarriage,
a major occupational change, redundancy or serious
illness.
• Others are more subtle, and include the ageing and
likely death of parents,
• the new role of grandparent,
• and the sense of loss which sometimes occurs when all
of the children have moved away from the family home
Mid Life Crisis
• The second component of the mid-life crisis is
the significant change in the internal aspects of
our life structure which occurs regardless of
external events.
• This involves reappraising our achievements
and remaining ambitions, especially those to do
with work and the relationship with our sexual
partner.
• A fundamental development at this time is our
realisation that the final authority for life rests
with us.
THE SEASONS OF A WOMAN'S
LIFE
Women
• The age-30 transition is as important for women as men.
• The evidence suggests that women who give marriage
and motherhood top priority in their 20s tend to develop
more individualistic goals for their 30s.
• However, those who are career-oriented early on in
adulthood tend to focus on marriage and family
concerns.
• Generally, the transitory instability of the early 30s lasts
longer for women than for men, and 'settling down' is
much less clear cut.
• Trying to integrate career and marriage/family
responsibilities is very difficult for most women, who
experience greater conflicts than their husbands are
likely to do.
Comparison of Erikson & Levinson
Bereavement
• The three phases of 'griefwork'
• 1 Disbelief and shock: This phase can last for a few
days and involves the refusal to accept the truth of what
has happened.
• 2 Developing awareness: This is the gradual
realisation and acknowledgement of what has happened.
This phase is often accompanied by feelings of guilt,
apathy, exhaustion and anger.
• 3 Resolution: In this phase, the bereaved individual
views the situation realistically, begins to cope without
the deceased, establishes a new identity and comes to
accept fully what has happened. This phase marks the
completion of 'griefwork'.
• (Based on Engel, 1962)
de Croot's nine components of grief
•
•
•
•
•
1 Shock: Usually the first response, most often described as a feeling of
'numbness'. Can also include pain, calm, apathy, depersonalisation and
derealisation. It is as if the feelings are so strong that they are 'turned off;
can last from a few seconds to several weeks.
2 Disorganisation: The inability to do the simplest thing or, alternatively,
organising the entire funeral and then collapsing.
3 Denial: Behaving as if the deceased were still alive, a defence against
feeling too much pain, usually an early feature of grief but one that can
recur any time. A common form of denial is searching behaviour, e.g.
waiting for the
deceased to come home, or having hallucinations of them.
4 Depression: Emerges as the denial breaks down but can occur, usually
less frequently and intensely, at any point during the grieving process.
Either 'desolate pining' (a yearning and longing, an emptiness 'interspersed
with waves of intense psychic pain') or 'despair' (feeling of helplessness, the
blackness of the realisation of powerlessness to bring back the dead).
de Croot's nine components of grief
• 5 Guilt: Can be both real and imagined, for actual neglect of the
deceased when they were alive or for angry thoughts and feelings.
• 6 Anxiety: Fear of losing control of one's feelings, of going mad or
more general apprehension about the future (changed roles,
increased responsibilities, financial worries, etc.).
• 7 Aggression: Irritability towards family and friends, outbursts of
anger towards God or fate, doctors and nurses, the clergy or even
the person who has died.
• 8 Resolution: An emerging acceptance of the
death, a 'taking leave of the dead and ant|
acceptance that life must go on'.
"
• 9 Reintegration: Putting acceptance into practice by reorganising
one's life in which the deceased has no place. (However, pining and
despair, etc. may reappear on anniversaries, birthdays, etc.).
Four Abnormal Patterns of Grief
• Prolonged incapacitating grief
• Exaggerated Numbness
• Neurotic Forms of Emotional distress – fear of
being alone, feelings of depersonalisation
(feeling unreal)
• Physical Symptoms – Murray Parkes found
widows consulted GPs much more often in the
six months after bereavement. Indeed there is
an increased risk of death in these 6 months
Preparing for Death
• Most adolescents and young adults rarely think about
their own death, since it is an event far removed in time.
Barrow and Smith (1979) have suggested that some
people even engage in an illusion of immortality and
completely avoid confronting the fact that their own days
are numbered.
• As people age, however, so their thoughts become
increasingly preoccupied with death. Our attitude
towards death is ambivalent: sometimes we shut it out
and deny it, and sometimes we desperately want to talk
about it and share our fears of the unknown.
Preparing for Death
• Kiibler-Ross (1969) uses the term anticipatory grief to describe
how the terminally ill come to terms with their own understanding of
imminent; death. One common feature of this is reminiscing. This
may be a valuable way of 'sorting out' the past and present
• This life review may result in a new sense of accomplishment,
satisfaction and peace (and corresponds to Erikson's ego-integrity,
• Coming to terms with our own death is a crucial task of life which
Peck (1968) calls ego-transcendence versus ego-preoccupation.
• We may review our lives privately (or internally) or we may share our
memories and reflections with others. By helping us to organise a
final perspective on our lives for ourselves, and leaving a record that
will live on with others after we have died, sharing serves a double
purpose
Conclusions
• A large number of marker events (or critical life
events) or processes have been identified.
• These include unemployment, retirement,
marriage, divorce, parenthood and
bereavement.
• Psychological research has told us much about
the effects of these and the ways in which they
help us to understand adjustment to adulthood.
Homework
• Study Rogers Theory of Personality
• You will research views and criticisms of
this on the internet next week