histories that this was not simply a “developmental emergent” without
precedent in the life of the individual. Even if the individual had led arelatively solid and satisfying life up to that point, these researchers be -
lieved that the seeds of crisis had already been laid by defects in the sub -
ject’s character and the resulting poor choices he had made.
We found evidence of another sort for the same phenomenon. In
our questionnaire studies of the midlife crisis (described in Chapter 9),we found that only a minority of men of any age felt themselves to be ina crisis. When, however, we examined the scores these few had receivedon personality measures taken 10 years earlier, we found that even thenthey had been significantly higher than others in Neuroticism. If wespoke to these men today , we might find them blaming all their troubleson recent events or on their age or health. But they had had more thantheir share of complaints many years earlier, and it begins to seem thatthey carried their troubles with them. It may be that the form of the
trouble varies with the period of life in which they happen to be. Gould(1972) found that the nature of the concerns that brought patients totherapy differed by age: Adolescents had problems with their parents;young adults, with career choices. Well-adjusted individuals who gothrough the same situations regard them as challenges rather than in-soluble problems.
Such studies as these point the way to whole new lines of research,
since they show that neither our dispositions in themselves nor the cir-cumstances that age and history confront us with are sufficient to ex-plain the forms (or failures) of our adjustment. Instead of being contentto ask “How do older people adjust to retirement or bereavement orrelocation?” we may find that we have to ask “How do older neuroticpeople . . . ?” or “How do older open extraverts . . . ?” We need to de -
velop a contextual psychology of aging that integrates personality traits
with changing life situations and social roles.
Personal Projects, Social Clocks, and Psychobiography
Much of the conduct of life is routine: going to work, doing errands,cleaning the house, and watching television. However humdrum theymay seem, these routines are generally the result of an elaborate evolu -
tion intended to allow us to gratify most of our needs most of the time
as well as we can in our circumstances. What seems unremarkable fromits familiarity is in fact an intricate construction, a life structure. As we220 PERSONALITY IN ADULTHOOD