Features of Psychological Portrait of People Undergoing Middle-Age Crisis

Abstract

The article examines the personal features of people of early maturity age who realize the experience of the existential crisis. The existential crisis is a system phenomenon which is described not only by psychological but also by sociological, culturological and philosophical categories. The study is carried out on the basis of the Scientific-Practical Center for Psychology of Relations «Shagi» («Steps») in Irkutsk. A hypothesis is used resulting in an assumption that the respondents undergoing the crisis are characterized by distinct manifestation of accentuated traits of personality, symptoms of depression, level of existential performance, priorities of true-life meanings, indictors of viability. The article uses an extensive complex of psycho-diagnostic methods: the test «Accent 2-90», A.T. Beck scale of depression, A. Langlais and K. Orgler scale of existence, the B.Yu. Kotlyakov methods of investigating life meanings, the S. Muddy test if viability in L.A. Leontyevs adaptation. The results of the research can be used in the group and individual counseling of the clients of this age category.