How did the myth of the midlife crisis become so well accepted?

Aaron Weyburn

PSYC 1100
 There was a time when people had the decency to wait until they were approaching 50

to have a mid-life crisis. Now it seems many thirtysomethings find themselves succumbing to

existential navel-gazing (Barrowcliffe, 2017). The idea of the mid-life crisis has brought plenty

of laughter into our lives, as long as someone else is experiencing a supposed period of unusual

anxiety, radical self-reexamination, and sudden transformation (Berger, 2014). The purpose of

this essay is to: clarify why the midlife crisis theory has been debunked and investigate how the

theory became so well accepted in our culture by clearly defining its parameters and foundational

theories, considering the timing of the theorys introductions to academia and the general

populous as part of the reason for its quick acceptance, and reviewing the authors and notable

scholars that perpetuated the myth of midlife crisis.

No theory stands alone. The midlife crisis theory is no exception; it is based on life stage

theory. Life stage theories assume all individuals go through the same life stages (Lawrence,

1980). If this were the case a Zulu tribal chief would go through the same developmental stages

as an affluent woman from Long Island, New York. How likely is that? [T]he theories are

psychologicalthey are primarily concerned with describing changes within the individual.

Moreover, they view each life stage as completely different from any other.Finally, the theories

assume that life stages are tied to specific age spans (Lawrence, 1980). So using age and what

is happening in a persons life one should be able to place them in the correct life stage? Not

quite. Different researchers had different start and end dates for their middle adult era and not

all of them agree on precisely what characteristics differentiate midlife (Lawrence, 1980).

Midlife changes are mostly simultaneous changes in family and/or work, death of parent(s),

children leaving home, onset of mental or chronic illness, and acute awareness of aging and

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death (Lawrence, 1980). There are just too many variables across the human species to simplify

our lives into 3 life stages and therefor midlife crisis theory is a myth.

Timing played a role in the quick acceptance of the midlife crisis theory. At the height of

the Cold War, the public was introduced to this new theory during the 70s the decade of

narcissism. (Lawrence, 1980). Everyone was interested in finding out more about themselves

and the news media was strangely excited to spread the word about midlife crisis.

In academia, the term midlife crisis was first used in a 1965 obscure academic journal

article called Death and the Midlife Crisis by Elliott Jaques. The article was frequently cited

and began a windfall of studies published in the 70s about adult lives (Lawrence, 1980).

A scientist and at least one writer sold the idea of midlife crisis theory to the public with

great credentials and poor research. Daniel Levinson spent 12 post graduate years at Harvard

with some of psychologys leading researchers like: Erik Erikson and Robert White, then adult

development at Yale 24 years (unknown, 2017). His credentials are very impressive but his

data were lackluster. For his research that supports midlife crisis Levinson interviewed [only]

40 men, all from one cohort and the data were also analyzed by middle aged men (Berger,

2014). The implications of this study hardly qualify as a management source of literature. In fact,

it likely influenced the misandrist notion that only males or that the statistical majority of males

will at some point undergo a midlife crisis. There is no way that these results could be

statistically valid. Gail Sheehy, a celebrated journalist in the Feminist community helped

popularized the life-stage concept. She summarized Levinsons work and supplemented it by

interviewing nonrandom people (Berger, 2014). At least Sheehy can plead not guilty because she

is just a writer.

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 This essay discussed why midlife crisis theory is not valid and investigated how the

theory became quickly accepted into our culture by, clearly defining its research parameters and

foundational theories, realizing that timing of the theorys introduction as part of the reason for

its quick acceptance, and noting those who perpetuated the myth of midlife crisis to turn a profit.

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Bibliography
Barrowcliffe, M. (2017, August 1). Mark Barrowcliffe Quotes. Retrieved from BrainyQuote.com:
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/markbarrow620319.html

Berger, K. S. (2014). Invitation to The Life Span. New York: Worth Publishers.

Lawrence, B. S. (1980). The Myth of the Midlife Crisis. Sloan Management Review, 35-49.

unknown. (2017, August 1). Wikipedia. Retrieved from Daniel Levinson:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Levinson#Publications

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