Factors that characterized the contemporary life-events approach

Question:
Please describe the different factors that characterized the contemporary life-events approach. Look at a friend or an acquaintance’s life and illustrate his/her middle-adulthood development, and how these factors interact that influence his/her development.

Answer:
I have a friend by the name of J (name hidden for confidentiality). He's 60 years old. He is a professional singer at this age.The reason is that he started to become professional at his late 50s. Probably that's due to Erikson's idea of either one provide unconditional guidance to younger people or being self-absorbed, engaging in meeting one's own personal affairs and desires. In the case of J, he desires to be a professional singer even at this age. But he really sings well... much better than the Hong Kong singers that made it based on connections nor looks.

When I speak with him, or observe how he communicates with others, in terms of "being young vs being old", when he is in front of younger people (like me...haha), he will say that he is old...but when he is talking with people around his age group, he will tell them that he is still young and super energetic. And that is true too, because I play racket games with him and he goes for every ball, sometimes diving to ensure he hits the shuttle before it reaches the ground. So in a way, he is pretty masculine, in the sportive sense. For "being attached to others vs being separated from them", this is very interesting because he has been married 3 times. He has separated a few times with his ex-wives, yet he is still attached to his latest wife (3rd marriage)...


Comments:
Thank you so much for sharing. This is quite an interesting example. I wonder did J mention the reason why he become a professional singer in his late 50s? What was his career before and is there a special life event that prompt him to make such a big change?

Answer 2:
The contemporary life-events approach emphasizes that how life events influence the individual’s development depends not only on the life event, but also on mediating factors (physical health, family supports), the individual’s adaptation to the life event (appraisal of the threat, coping strategies), the life-stage context, and the socio- historical context.(p. 504) As usual, it has some imperfections . Critics claim that the approach ignores stability and daily stresses.

John (Name hidden for confidentiality) is my ex-boss. His diligence wins the fastest promotion to the director position. He has good relationships with family and grades his marriage as satisfaction. With the consent of his wife, he decides not to have any offspring. However, his desire to do something for the next generation is so strong that he does not hesitate to teach everything to his subordinates. His dedication inspires many colleagues.


The most stressful event he experiences in life is his parent’s divorce in his young adulthood. His mother initiates the divorce. Being the only son in the family, he has tried every effort to salvage but in vain. The life-stage and socio-historical context may make this event less disastrous. John is an adult and divorce become more common in HK society. However, he still perceives it as highly stressful and suffers depression over a year. With strong support from his wife, he finally overcomes and returns to normal.

Comments:

Your example is very interesting. As you said John was quite devastated by his parent's divorce, though he recovered from it, I am curious if his parent's divorce had anything to do with his decision to not having children? Sometimes life event may have longer lasting impact on one's life-span development and subsequent life decisions than we can imagine.


Answer 3:

For me this is very vivid within my family. My dad died suddenly at the age of 40 of a heart attack, 5 days before Christmas. My mom was essentially widowed with three kids and little job skills. In time she sold the farm, moved to northern Canada and started a new life for herself. She went to college, got a degree and has had an amazing career in media -tv, radio and newspaper. Her situation plunged her into drastic but wonderful changes for her personal and professional development. My dads sudden death also had impact on those in the community who then looked at their life and wondered what they wanted it to look like.

These types of crisis can help to re-route people into making positive healthy changes for themselves. I know people who used this as an opportunity to reflect on their life and some quit their high pressure jobs and started to work in fields they actually liked. THe desire for money and prestige lessened and the desire for happiness entered.

Comments:
Your mom served as a great model for everyone. Life events can sometimes be devastating, but at the same time it presents us with the opportunity to look at our lives from a different perspectives, which help us to learn to become stronger, better person. It all depends on our perception of the events and how effectively we cope with the stress and trauma of these life events. Life events sometimes impact one's life so deep that subsequent decisions will be affected. Do you have one?


Answer 4:

Luckily, so far there isn't any traumatic life event like death of close relatives or divorce, happen to me. But I realize minor stressful experiences one encounter can quite add up and mold one's personality into a specific direction. As I shared earlier, my mom used to yell at me quite severely when I was young if I keep making the same mistakes in writing Chinese character; if i don't get a perfect 100 on my dictation, even 98, she would be very upset; and for many times, she would run crying and dash out of the apartment as if it was the biggest fault anyone can commit and I am a big disappointment to her. This all adds up that made me very nervous about exams and grades when I was in high school and got over-worried with my future career.