David Levinsons Seasons of A Mans Life :: Psychology Levinson Males Essays

David Levinsons Seasons of A Mans LifeIntroductionBackgroundIn may of 1977, Daniel Levinson constructed a pretence of the seasons ofa mans disembodied spirit. His developmental theory consists of universal stages or phasesthat ext eat ups from the infancy state to the elderly state. Most developmenttheories, such as Freuds psychosexual development theory or Piagets cognitivedevelopment theory, end in the adolescent stage of life. Levinsons stagetheory is important because it goes beyond most theories assuming thatdevelopment continues throughout cock-a-hoop life.Levinson based his model on biographical interviews of 40 American men.These 40 men were mingled with 35 to 45 years in age and they worked as bothbiology professors, novelists, business executives or industrial laborers. Thebiographical interviews lasted one or two hours and ranged from six to teninterviews for separately subject. The questions asked focused on the subjects lifeaccounts in their post adolescent years. The interviews focused on topics suchas the mens background (education, religion, political beliefs) and majorevents or turning points in their lives.Levinsons concept of life structure (the mens socio-cultural universe of discourse,their participation in their world and various aspects of themselves) is themajor component in Levinsons theory. The life structure for each personevolves through the developmental stages as peoples age.Two key concepts in Levinsons model are the invariable period and thetransitional period in a persons development. The stable period is the timewhen a person makes essential choices in life, builds a life structure around thechoices and seeks goals within the structure. The transitional period is theend of a persons stage and the beginning of a spic-and-span stage.Levinsons model contains five main stages. They are the pre- pornographichoodstage (age 0 - 22), the betimes adulthood stage (age 17 - 45), the middle adultstage (age 40 - 65), the late adu lthood stage (age 60 - 85) and the late lateadult stage (age 80 plus). Levinson states the shift from one era to the nextis a massive development step and require transitional period of some(prenominal)years.(Levinson, 1977) This would explain why there is an overlap in each ofthese stages.Levinsons startle adult stage in his model is called the Early Adult passage Period. This phase is similar to Eriksons psychological theory inthat both hit the young adults identity crisis or role confusion. It isduring this phase that the young adult first gains independence (financial orotherwise) and leaves the home. This is a transitional stage because it labelthe end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood.The second stage would be a stable period because it marks the time