Developmental Psychology: Transitional Periods

Transitional periods between the life cycles

Many developmental psychologists associate transitional periods of development with developmental crises (Caplan 1964, Levinson 1978, Sheehy 1977). For these scientists the terms “Transitional periods” and “Developmental crises” are synonymous. For us “Developmental crises” is a general term for different types of normative stressful periods of development (Khudoyan 2004) and there are crises, which are caused not by transitions from one developmental stage to another (for example, some developmental crises are determined by reconstruction of self- consciousness). Therefore, we prefer to use the terms “transitional periods” or “transitional crises” without identifying them with the general

During developmental reorganizations in transitional periods, new needs (drives) emerge, but they are not recognized, are not directed to concrete objects and are not satisfied. As a result, the energy of these needs does not discharge and causes specific symptoms of these crises - anxiety, grief, sometimes-aggressive impulses, feeling of uncertainty (Khudoyn 2004). Another characteristic of these periods is the feeling of becoming older, which causes nostalgic experiences associated with previous developmental stage and anxiety concerning the next stage (this symptom is typical for early adulthood and midlife crises). People of these ages can declare that they do not want to grow; they prefer to “regress” to their younger ages. Marginality also has some impact on this crisis. For example, the question “I am young or old” is actual in the midlife crisis (Levinson

This transition is well studied in developmental psychology (Levinson 1978, Sheehy, 1977). The researchers mentioned that it is a period of preliminary orientation in adult life and social roles, occupational choices, leaving the family (Shihy 1977, Levinson 1978), changes in value system, the formation of worldview, searches for the meaning of life (Kon 1989) etc. Our research showed that the main symptoms of this crisis are anxiety because of entering the adult world, feelings of uncertainty about future and grief. We believe that during this period the parental need starts to actualize at the subconscious level. Another characteristic of this transitional age is an acute need for independence, which very often provokes conflicts with parents. In our opinion, becoming independent is the major goal of this transitional age. Independence means emancipation from parental custody and developing self-regulation, self-care skills. This is an important step on the way to parenthood; the man first must be able to take care of himself than of