Toward a Developmental View of Adult Crisis: a Re-Examination of Crisis Theory

Abstract

The thesis of this article is that sudden event-related crises can produce developmental shifts as part of the normal progression of the adult life cycle. Evidence for this is available from both the crisis intervention and life-span development literatures. Observations of individuals in crisis reveals the occurrence of profound structural changes in perception and experience. However, more systematic examination of the developmental significance of such crises awaits the reworking of several traditional concepts which derive from crisis theory.