ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to look at the people understandings of adult growth and development as the context for suggesting how the people can adapt, how they can learn to cope better. Contemporary understanding of adult growth and development draws out the significance of the different adaptations the people have to make at different times of life, and shows how one builds on another. Told in the context of the developmental account of adult growth, this living-career story establishes the need for men and women to reach the best possible understanding of what is going on around them, the need to learn. Meaningful achievement within Western culture has long been attached substantially to performance in an occupational career. Adaptation is the major task for men and women of all ages, and it is never ending. At all times of change the risk is that one’s sense of identity is threatened.
