Question

1. What is thought to lead to a midlife crisis, and does the evidence suggest that it is a normative event? How does one's self-acceptance, autonomy, and mastery changed from young adulthood to older adulthood

SEE Model State the main concept or idea in a single sentence or two. Elaborate on the main concept in your own words. Explain it at greater length in a paragraph or two. Be sure to define any important terms used in the elaboration. Exemplify the main concept by giving concrete examples of it. If the elaboration included important terms, be sure to specify what they correspond to in the example.

Answer 1

Midlife crisis refers to the changes in personality and lifestyle of an individual from early forties to middle forties. This is regarded as a very stressful period which is triggered by one's review and reevaluation about their lives. Its is also called as second adolescence at times. According to Elliott Jacques, who is a pyschoanalyst, it is caused due to the awareness of morality. Many people realize that they have not been able to fulfill their dreams and now they do not have time to do so. They find themselves to be less satisfied at that point of time in life than what they had expected. Thus we can say that midlife crisis occurs when one retrospects about their life.

The evidence of midlife crisis being a normative event is largely in doubt. Many research findings have failed to suggest that it is universal. It is found to be very unusual of it occurs.

Self-acceptance is a state of a complete acceptance of oneself as you are. Self acceptance is an essential component to attain integrity in the last part of life. Self acceptance leads to well-being and better adjustment. Across the globe, many older adults are found to be well adapted and adjusted despite the health issues. This could be perhaps because of a better acceptance of self and life.

Autonomy is the belief that the decisions and choices that an individual makes is solely theirs. Autonomy is essential for psychological growth. Young adults seek for more autonomy as they start making a life for themselves. They seek to fulfill their dreams and goals. They aspire to make decisions that will help them lead a life of satisfaction that they hope for. As people progress towards late adulthood they seek for dependence on their children. Since autonomy is the ability to change course of life, we can say that older adults have generally achieved much in their lives and hence rather than seeing what they can do to further change their lives, they would focus on other aspects.

Mastery involves having skills and knowledge about a particular subject. As adults progress through their adulthood, they may become more good at competence, an essential component of mastery. Advances in mastery continue till late adulthood. By late adulthood, people tend to display effective problem solving skills as well. Perhaps this is the reason why many firms have advisory boards comprising of senior adults.

Hope this answer helps!