Section 11 – 5 Adulthood’s Ages and Stages Objective: Explain why the path of adult development need not be lightly linked to one’s chronological age.

 Midlife Crisis - As age comes around the 40’s, there is a sudden crisis of great struggle and regret.  According to data however, there is no significant surge in emotional crisis rates.  Midlife Crises, and emotional stability surges can happen at any age, due to a variety of causes. Midlife Transition

Social Clock  Social clock is the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.  Social clock varies from cultural to cultural and era to era.  In Jordan, 40% of brides are in their teens; in Honk Kong only 3% are in their teens.  In Western Europe, less than 10% of men over 65 remain in the work force, while in the United States 16% do.  The social clock once prescribed that university graduation should occur around the age of 22. Today, more students are earning at other ages.

 Significant events in life (like marriage, divorce, and vocational change) can have a drastic effect on one’s path in life and can mark transitions to new life stages.  In this day and age, people are more likely than ever to go out of sync with the “social clock”  The influence of chance encounters can be best observed with David Lykken and Auke Tellegen’s research into twins and their spouses, finding that only 5 percent of twin siblings said “I could have fallen for my twin’s partner.”  Therefore, adult development relies less on the biological processes within the body and mind, but more on the experiences in life itself. Life Events and Chance Encounters