A conception of adult development.

Abstract

Adult development is becoming an important field of study for psychology and other disciplines. Little has been done, however, to conceptualize the nature of adult development and to define the major issues in this field. The author summarizes his own formulations of life course, life cycle, life structure, and the adult development of the life structure in early and middle adulthood. He then discusses six major issues that must be dealt with by every structural approach to adult development: What are the alternative ways of defining a structural stage or period? What relative emphasis is given to the structures as compared to the transitional periods? How can we make best use of the distinction between hierarchical levels and seasons of development? Are there age-linked developmental periods in adulthood? What are the relative merits and limitations of various research methods? How can we bring together the developmental perspective and the socialization perspective?

Lay Understanding of Happiness and the Experience of Well-Being: Are Some Conceptions of Happiness More Beneficial than Others?

“…Integration of the two elements (well-being and conceptions of happiness), especially if age is treated as a moderating variable, could yield interesting results. Conceptions of well-being congruent with developmental tasks at a particular stage in life (Erikson 1950;Levinson 1986) may be more beneficial to individual well-being than conceptions that emphasize elements incongruent with opportunities available to people at a certain level of development. This claim is supported by the selective optimization and compensation model, which indicates that changes in values and goals that happen when people age may be a sign of adaptation to changing circumstances (Baltes and Baltes 1990).…”

“…At this age, many important life events take place but there is no evidence that this is a time of crisis. Rather, events such as marrying and having children are realizations of developmental tasks set for early adulthood (Levinson 1986). Adults aged 40-45 (adulthood, transition) represented the period of mid-life.…”

Future time perspective: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

“…Moreover, future research should strive to understand the experience of time as a function of chronological age, as well as related variables, such as developmental tasks and strong negative life events (e.g., illness, the death of a relative, or unemployment; see Erikson & Erikson, 1998;Levinson, 1986). …”

“…Taken together, our results suggest that greater attention should be given to the dimension of FTP considered and measured. In addition, these findings indicate that some FTP dimensions (i.e., future orientation and affectivity) demonstrate change across the lifespan.Longitudinal research is therefore needed to examine the stability and dynamics of FTP dimensions and potential age-related changes in other dimensions of FTP (i.e., continuity).Moreover, future research should strive to understand the experience of time as a function of chronological age, as well as related variables, such as developmental tasks and strong negative life events (e.g., illness, the death of a relative, or unemployment; see Erikson & Erikson, 1998;Levinson, 1986). …”

The Evolution of Active-Sport-Event Travel Careers

“…Pearce further proposed travel motives are linked to the current state of an individual's travel career, which can be assessed through a combined attention to travel experience, age and life cycle (p. 55). The term life cycle refers to a sequence of eras biopsychosocial in nature, based on an individual's age (Levinson, 1986) and has been used to investigate activity preferences in sport (Gibson & Chang, 2012) and tourism (Oppermann, 1995). Pearce and Lee (2005) argue stimulation, personal development, self-actualization, and recognition motives are more important to less experienced tourists while self-development through host-site involvement, and nature seeking motives are emphasized by experienced tourists.…”