The existential theory of radical mid-life career change is a theory focusing on work salient individuals around the age of 35 and beyond who have previously established a career path and who are in a position to alter that path due to minimal environmental constraints. The theory postulates that at around this age the realization of the finite…

Gerontologists have studied the role of memory and reminiscence in later life to see if life review leads to increased satisfaction in old age. Novelists offer some concrete examples of the varying ways that this review can affect the self-esteem of aging persons. Molly Keane, Elizabeth Bowen, and Peter Taylor all agree that late middle age…

Discusses the transition from teaching in a college to working in business. Points out similarities and differences between the work of academe and the business world. (EL)

Although aging is a process that affects everyone, individuals can choose how they will behave as they become older. Some persons choose to focus on the negative, becoming more and more self-centered and driving away those around them, becoming a burden to themselves and to society. Others, often prompted by a midlife crisis or period of…

For the healthy midlife adult, the second half of life provides a balance for the first half: men become more nurturant while women become more aggressive. The definition of the midlife woman is tied to the family cycle, when her children leave home. Marital satisfaction often increases after the children are gone and relinquishing her role as…

This document identifies patterns of characteristics of those who have leisure as an option at mid-life. A comparison was made between individuals electing to enter teaching and those electing to pursue leisure at this life stage. Results of structured interviews, statistical results, and an analysis of a life satisfaction scale is given. In…

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assists clients to develop an understanding of their four functions (sensing, intuition, thinking, feeling), and their four attitudes (extraversion, introversion, judgment, and perception). It also provides information about each client's dominant, auxiliary, tertiary, and inferior functions, and the time…

This research paper explores both the meaning of career decisions and the implications of these decisions for teacher education. Since a pilot study indicated that gender realization was influenced by the historical era in which people are raised, four subjects--two men and two women--from different age levels were selected to be the subjects of…

This study examined the interrelationships between individual development and the family system by testing the hypothesis that variations in family relations during middle adolescence are associated with psychological and social aspects of adolescent development and with parental midlife development. Data were collected from 27 parent-adolescent…

Postponed childbearing increases the likelihood that the responsibility for caring for frail elderly parents will coincide with the period of active mothering. A woman who is 40 at the time she first becomes a mother may easily have parents or other family members over the age of 65, or even over 85 years of age. Noting that 44 percent of women…

Middle aged women who have previously been occupied with family and community activities often experience increased role stress when they begin to invest more time and energy in their work roles. To compare coping styles women use to adjust to job changes, 71 women, aged 30-62, who had changed jobs within a 3-year interval were classified into…

Burnout must be considered as symptomatic of a serious event in a person's life--a mid-life crisis, as it is widely termed. Numerous writings point out that during a period of life, roughly between the ages of 30 and 55, many people reach a crisis brought on by the realization that everyone's career, status, and life are measurable and limited.…

Two surveys were conducted regarding the career and life transition needs of National Hockey League (NHL) players and their spouses. The Professional Athletes' Career Transition Inventory was distributed to player representatives and members of eight NHL teams. Results revealed that 85 percent of players believed it important that help be provided…

Midlife divorce for women can be a time for creative growth or divorce can lead to loneliness, bitterness, and depression. Middle-aged women appear to experience an inordinate amount of stress from divorce because of loss of roles and lack of new role models. Based upon role theory and divorce as a normal developmental process, a feminist…

The study described in this paper was conducted to delineate the phenomenon of generativity in middle-aged adults in an attempt to identify its major characteristics, attributes, determinants, and situational or circumstantial variables. Three themes emerged from a literature survey of materials on middle adulthood: the theme of the entry…