Identity and Crisis in Middle Aged Men
- 1 May 1976
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in International Journal of Aging & Human Development
- Vol. 7 (2) , 153-170
- https://doi.org/10.2190/w0wg-2jh0-dxbv-3w8u
Abstract
The authors selectively review disparate literature bearing on the issue of the male mid-life transition. There is considerable evidence that the entrance into middle age is associated with stress and often maladaptive patterns of reaction. There is little available information, however, on the specific nature of the stressors, their differential impact, or the factors associated with the individual's attempted style of adaptation to them. Through the process of exploring relevant findings from sociology, social and clinical psychology, and popular fiction we attempt to specify a working model of the experience of entering middle age. The authors see this model as being of heuristic value in that it specifies a number of dimensions to be operationalized which may, together, provide a more holistic view of the changes in the self-system undergone by the middle aged male.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- Fathers and Sons: The Interlocking Crises of Integrity and IdentityPsychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 1972
- Transition to the Empty NestArchives of General Psychiatry, 1972
- The Alcoholic Psychotic in the New York State Mental Hospitals, 1951–1960Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 1963