Seasons of Life

1978

Daniel Levinson (1920–1994)

“What have I done with my life? What are my central values, and how are they reflected in my life?” These questions and others like them were posed by psychologist Daniel Levinson in his landmark book The Seasons of a Man’s Life (1978). Levinson conducted a longitudinal study of forty men and found that as they approached the age of forty, such existential questions were likely to surface. Later research with women found many of the same types of issues were present. Levinson concluded that it was these kinds of questions and the underlying psychological issues they raised that led Americans in midlife to make important, sometimes dramatic, changes in their lives. Some left their careers for new professions, some divorced and remarried, and some reoriented their lives to seek deeper spiritual values.

Psychologists such as Levinson studied adult development changes scientifically, but the concept caught on in the popular press, too, with books like Passages (1976) by Gail Sheehy. For some American adults, middle age is best described as a midlife crisis. By the 1980s, a growing body of literature both scientific and popular described the changes that American baby boomers were going through. The research showed that only about 12 percent of American men experienced midlife as an existential crisis that made them aware of the need to make important changes, while about 30 percent were dissatisfied with their lives but blamed others for their problems.

Women, surprisingly, did not generally report midlife as a time of crisis. Rather, with children approaching adulthood and with fewer responsibilities at home, many American women found middle age full of new opportunities.

In more recent years, psychologists and others have suggested there are other options in adult development. Many believe that adults face one of four developmental choices: positive adult development, directionless change, stasis, or decline. None of these outcomes is inevitable, but rather is the result of multiple decisions made over the course of a lifetime.

SEE ALSO Stages of Adult Cognition (1977), Ecological Systems Theory (1979)

The proverbial middle-aged man in a red convertible has come to symbolize the midlife crisis in our culture.