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This symposium focuses on understanding developmental experiences in the adult lives of women, including the nature of psychosocial changes and their relation to chronological age, family-cycle phase, and historical time. Harris, Reinke, and Ellicott report on a research program oriented to hypothesis testing. They interviewed 124 middle-class women randomly selected from seven age-groups (30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60) about their life experiences retrospectively. Noteworthy findings included major transitions associated with ages 27–30 and with the preschool, launching, and postparental phases of the family cycle. In particular, the family cycle, which implies a context of relationships and social roles, illuminated many psychosocial regularities across women’s lives. In her discussion, Hancock describes some theory-generating research which suggests that women’s developmental crises, precipitated by ruptures in relationships, challenge assumptions about relationships and impel women toward active self-emergence.

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