The Science of Midlife: Why 'Crisis' Is the Wrong Word

TEST_YOURSELF · How well do you know this science?

1. 01 Who coined the term 'midlife crisis', and how?

   Erik Erikson, from a longitudinal study of typical adultsElliott Jaques, from reading the biographies of painters, writers and composersMIDUS researchers, from a national surveySigmund Freud, from his clinical case studies

   Elliott Jaques coined 'mid-life crisis' in a 1965 paper analyzing the biographies of painters, writers and composers, after noticing many showed a creative shift around age 35-40 tied to confronting mortality — not from surveying ordinary adults. source ↗

2. 02 In MIDUS-funded research, 26% of Americans self-reported a 'midlife crisis'. What did that figure mostly reflect?

   Clinically diagnosed depressive episodesOrdinary stressful life events, like job loss, illness or divorceA precise match to Jaques's original concept of creative crisisMenopause-specific symptoms exclusively

   Wethington's analysis found that most of the 26% who self-reported a 'midlife crisis' were describing ordinary stressful life events rather than an age-triggered existential turning point matching Jaques's original concept. source ↗

3. 03 In Erikson's model, what is the central psychosocial task of midlife?

   Identity versus role confusionGenerativity versus stagnationTrust versus mistrustCrisis versus recovery

   Erikson's seventh psychosocial stage, centered on midlife, is generativity versus stagnation: contributing to the next generation and meaningful work, versus turning inward and stalling. Identity versus role confusion is his adolescent stage; trust versus mistrust is infancy. source ↗

4. 04 What did George Vaillant's decades-long Grant Study find about generativity achieved in midlife?

   It had no measurable bearing on outcomes in old ageIt predicted better psychosocial health in old ageOnly genetics predicted happiness in old age, not generativityExperiencing a midlife crisis predicted better outcomes than generativity did

   Drawing on 70-plus years of data, Vaillant's Triumphs of Experience reports that achieving generativity in midlife — not the presence or absence of a 'crisis' — predicts better psychosocial health and adjustment in old age. source ↗

5. 05 What does research on 'encore careers' show about reinventing work in your 40s, 50s or 60s?

   It is vanishingly rare and mostly a sign of prior failureIt is a well-documented, growing pattern people pursue deliberately for meaning and incomeIt only occurs among people who have already retired and returned by accidentIt requires abandoning income entirely in favor of volunteer work

   Freedman's Encore and the MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures survey document 'encore careers' — work combining meaning, continued income and social impact — as a well-established, growing pattern, with roughly 8.4 million Americans ages 44-70 already in one by 2008. source ↗