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A Conception of Adult Development

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A Conception of Adult Development A Conception of Adult Development Daniel J. Levinson Yale University ABSTRACT: Adult development is becoming an important problem for psychology as a discipline and an important field of study for psychology and other disciplines. Little link between psychology and other disciplines, including has been done, however, to conceptualize the nature of sociology, biology, and history. adult development and to define the major issues in this I have two primary aims here. First, I will present field. The author summarizes his own formulations of life my conception of adulthood and of a developmental pro- course, life cycle, life structure, and the adult development cess within it. My intention is to explicate a theoretical of the life structure in early and middle adulthood. He position, not to prove it nor to argue for its superiority then discusses six major issues that must be dealt with over others. The theory originated in my initial study of by every structural approach to adult development: What men's lives (Levinson, 1977, 1978). It has evolved over are the alternative ways of defining a structural stage or the last few years, particularly through my current re- period? What relative emphasis is given to the structures search on women's lives (Levinson, in press). It is sup- as compared to the transitional periods? How can we make ported by a number of other studies (e.g., Gooden, 1980; best use of the distinction between hierarchical levels and Holt, 1980; Kellerman, 1975; Levinson, 1984; Stewart, seasons of development? Are there age-linked develop- 1976), but a great deal must yet be done to test and modify mental periods in adulthood? What are the relative merits it. The theory includes the following elements: (a) The and limitations of various research methods? How can we concepts of life course and life cycle, which provide an bring together the developmental perspective and the so- essential framework for the field of adult development; cialization perspective? within this framework, studies of one process or age level can be connected to others, but without it, we have a miscellany of findings and no integrated domain of in- The study of adult development is, one might say, in its quiry; (b) the concept of the individual life structure, infancy. It has been taken seriously in the human sciences which includes many aspects of personality and of the for only the past 30 years or so, largely under the impact external world but is not identical with any of these and of Erikson's (1950, 1958, 1969) germinal writings. Er- evolves in its own distinctive way; and (c) a conception of ikson's most obvious contribution was his theory of stages adult development--the evolution of the life structure in in ego development. What is less obvious is that his view early and middle adulthood. Life structure development of development is deeply grounded in his conceptions of is different from, and should not be confused with, the the life cycle and the life course. Each ego stage has its development of personality, social roles, or other com- primacy at a particular age level or segment of the life monly studied processes. cycle, from infancy to old age. The sequence of age seg- Second, I will discuss adult development as a field ments and ego stages thus provides a representation of of study. I will consider six major issues that help to define the life cycle as a whole; the meaning of a stage is defined what the field is about and what work must be done to in part by its place in the total sequence. In addition, his establish it more securely. The list is not complete, but developmental concepts arose out of his primary concern it provides a useful starting point. Reference will be made with the individual life course: the process of living, the to the work of others, but the main goal is to clarify my idea of life history rather than case history, the use of own position. Let it be clear that my aim is not to give a biography rather than therapy or testing as his chief re- comprehensive review of the work in this field nor to seek search method. Without abandoning the distinction be- consensus among the disparate approaches. I hope that tween self (psyche, personality, inner world) and external others will be stimulated to present contrasting views. world (society, culture, institutions, history), he gave first The Life Course consideration to the life course--the engagement of self with world. Life course is one of the most important yet least ex- Although a good deal has been learned since the amined terms in the human sciences. It is a descriptive 1950s about specific features of adult life, very little has term, not a high-level abstraction, and it refers to the been done to advance the general theory of adult devel- concrete character of a life in its evolution from beginning opment. At the same time, various fields of psychology to end. Both words in this term require careful attention. (such as child development, gerontology, personality, so- The word course indicates sequence, temporal flow, cial, clinical, and counseling psychology), as well as the the need to study a life as it unfolds over the years. To social sciences and humanities, are becoming more aware study the course of a life, one must take account of sta- that they need--and lack--an adult development per- bility and change, continuity and discontinuity, orderly spective. Adult development is, in short, a significant progression as well as stasis and chaotic fluctuation. It is January 1986 American Psychologist Copyright 1986 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0003-066X/86/$00.75 Vol. 41, No. 1, 3-13 not enough to focus solely on a single moment; nor is it as the springtime of the life cycle. Summer is the season enough to study a series of three or four moments widely of greatest passion and ripeness. An elderly ruler is "'the separated in time, as is ordinarily done in longitudinal lion in winter.'" There are seasons within a single day-- research. It is necessary, in Robert White's (1952) felic- dawn, noon, twilight, the full dark ofnightmeach having itous phrase, to examine "lives in progress" and to follow its counterpart in the life cycle. There are seasons in love, the temporal sequence in detail over a span of years. war, politics, artistic creation, and illness. The word life is also of crucial importance. Research The imagery of the life cycle thus suggests that the on the life course must include all aspects of living: inner life course evolves through a sequence of definable forms. wishes and fantasies; love relationships; participation in A season is a major segment of the total cycle. Change family, work, and other social systems; bodily changes; goes on within each season, and a transition is required good times and bad--everything that has significance in for the shift from one to the next. Every season has its a life. To study the life course, it is necessary first to look own time, although it is part of and colored by the whole. at a life in all its complexity at a given time, to include No season is better or more important than any other. all its components and their interweaving into a partially Each has its necessary place and contributes its special integrated pattern. Second, one must delineate the evo- character to the whole. lution of this pattern over time. What are the major seasons in the life cycle? Neither The study of the life course has presented almost popular culture nor the human sciences provide a clear insuperable problems to the human sciences as they are answer to this question. The modern world has no estab- now constituted. Each discipline has claimed as its special lished conceptionmscientific, philosophical, religious, or domain one aspect of life, such as personality, social role, literary~ofthe life cycle as a whole and of its component or biological functioning, and has neglected the others. phases. There is no standard language that demarcates Every discipline has split the life course into disparate and identifies several gross segments of the life cycle. The segments, such as childhood or old age. Research has predominant view, rarely stated explicitly, divides it into been done from such diverse theoretical perspectives as three parts: (a) an initial segment of about 20 years, in- biological aging, moral development, career development, cluding childhood and adolescence (preadulthood); (b) a adult socialization, enculturation, and adaptation to loss final segment starting at around 65 (old age); and (c) be- or stress, with minimal recognition of their interconnec- tween these segments, an amorphous time vaguely known tions. The resulting fragmentation is so great that no dis- as adulthood. cipline or viewpoint conveys the sense of an individual A good deal is known about the preadult years, life and its temporal course. which for a century have been the main province of the The recognition is slowly dawning that the many field of human development. The developmental per- specialties and theoretical approaches are not isolated spective has been of crucial importance here. The idea is entities but aspects of a single field: the study of the in- now accepted that in the first 20 years or so all human dividual life course. During the next decade, this study beings go through an underlying sequence of periods~ will emerge as a new multidisciplinary field in the human prenatal, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, sciences, linking the various disciplines. With the for- pubescence, and adolescence.
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