ABSTRACT
Many investigators have documented the existence of a series of life crises or major life stages during adulthood. Though each study varies somewhat in the names and positions of the various life stages, the studies taken together provide impressive evidence for the existence of major periods of change for the adults in the early thirties and early forties. Each participant was asked to engage in a collaborative exploration of the relationship between the person’s career and his or her life concerns. The emotions reported by the participant at the time of the major life change were also classified into a set of descriptive categories. Fully three-quarters of all emotions reported were unpleasant, though interviews indicated that pleasant emotions were more likely to occur following the major life change. Females in the sample showed a tendency to have more recent life cycle changes than men, though this difference was more marked in the administrators than either teachers or counsellors.
