Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

3-1982

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Educational Psychology and Guidance

Major Professor

Lawrence M. DeRidder, Sharon B. Lord

Committee Members

Cheryl B. Travis, Kathleen L. Davis

Abstract

The formation of the life structures of women age 40 to 50 entering middle adulthood was examined and a conceptual model of female development during the mid-life transition, age 40 to 45 is presented. The adult male life span theory of Daniel Levinson with its pivotal concept of the evolution of the life structure and age-linked developmental periods served as the paradigm for this study.

The principal research method used was the intensive interview which combined the structure of an interview guideline with enough flexibility to allow for the individuality of subjects and the uniqueness of their story. To arrive at concepts of women's development, comparisons were drawn between the proposed female model of the mid-life transition, the male model, and the actual responses of subjects as they were transcribed and tabulated according to responses to specific questions.

The findings support Levinson's premise that the women in this study go through the same developmental periods at niid-life as do men and that his model offers a basis for the study of women. A distinct mid-life transition of three to five years at approximately age forty was discernible in the lives of women subjects. A comparison of the transition of women subjects with those of Levinson's sample revealed a different period of onset and a lower incidence of severe crisis in the female sample. Subjects reported being age forty or fifty as better than they had been socialized to expect and spoke of entering the forties decade with a new sense of awareness of themselves as more inner-directed.

The departure of children from the home was viewed with a sense of relief by 50 percent of the sample involved. One half experienced depressive feelings associated with the "empty nest."

The majority of subjects reported the forties as the most sexually satisfying period of their life in contrast with the waning sexual powers of men and societal emphasis on youth and sex.

Subjects formed no serious visualization of self other than as married and did not seek as young adults an assessment of their abilities as did the men in Levinson's study.

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