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Daniel Levinson was a physiologist at Yale and came up with theory about adult development. He went through interviews with both men in 1978 and women in 1987 on the topic of the stages that adults go through in their development. He found that a person's life structure is formed through both their social and physical environment. He found four “season cycles” and they are: pre adulthood early adult hood, middle adult hood and late adult hood. He began studying 40 male adults with ages 35-45. He found that in early adult hood that the men began having careers and starting families. At about the age of 30, the men began really working on their careers. Then about the age of 40, then men start to realize that all the dreams they have, are going to come true. During the middle adult hood, they work to really try to perfect their skills in their career. Then finally at late adult hood, the men start to realize all their successes and also their failures and then they just begin to enjoy the rest of their life. Then Levinson did the same thing, but with 45 women, but still between the ages of 35-45. Out of the women that he interview; 1/3 were homemakers, 1/3 were college instructors and 1/3 of there were business women. Overall Levinson that on average, the women go through the same stages that the men went through. But he found that the women’s life cycles tend to be closer to family.
To Life
Education: Ones life is controlled by their social and physical environment. Most people’s life many involve family and work but some other factors also come into play, such as; religion, race and the status of their family.<?xml:namespace prefix = o />
Society: When men start earl adult hood, they are focused on their family and starting their careers. Once they reach their 30s, they start to work harder towards their career. Also, women go through these same cycles just like men do. But women for the most part tend to be closer to their families.
Workplace: When adolescent men finally reach middle age (around 30), they begin to take higher up positions in their companies. This is because at this age they begin to accumulate children, and at the same time their parents begin to get to the age where they need assistance in their everyday life to get by. Once this man hits his forties, he begins to question if he’s doing what he wants to be doing for the rest of his life, which can lead to a major change in their field of work, also known as a “midlife crisis”. It is by this age that most men have achieved the salary they desire and therefore begin to look into work that benefits others around them.
In his theory there are two key concepts:
1) the Stable Period - This is the time when a person makes life changing decisions.
2) the Transitional Period - This is the end of a person's stage and the beginning of a new one, putting there decisions into effect. These transitions can be rocky or smooth, but the quality and significance of one’s life commitments often change between the beginning and end of a period.