The experience of completing a midlife career change: a phenomenological study

The phenomenon addressed in this dissertation is the experience of completing a midlife career change. This experience is reported by many as they reach the ages between thirty-five and fifty-five. All research was conducted in response to the question: What is the meaning of the experience of completing a midlife career change? The data collection process followed the model of Barritt, Beekman, Blecker, and Mulderij (1983). It is known as the descriptive phenomenological approach which uses in-depth personal interviews and includes participants as co-researchers. Ten men and women referred by family, friends, and colleagues who had completed a midlife career change participated in the study. The phenomenological analysis of the protocols proceeded by first determining the elements and then establishing the themes into a structural whole--the individual description. These individual descriptions were reviewed and validated by the co-researchers. Following confirmation, the individual descriptions were integrated into a comprehensive Fundamental Description of the experience, again reviewed and validated by the co-researchers. The Fundamental Description identified six major themes which were common to each co-researcher's experience. The themes were: Preliminary Conditions for Change, Active Changing Process, Decision Making and Risk Taking, Outside-the-Self Assistance, Commitment to the Self, and Assessment of the Change. The analysis suggests that midlife career change is part of the continuum of normal adult development. The pejorative nature of the term "midlife crisis" is seen as inaccurate in the context of the present study, and needs to be reframed to reflect the "opportunity plus danger" that the Chinese definition of crisis suggests. That midlife career change reflects a personal instability is not supported by this study. Rather, the midlife career change is found to be a time of becoming free of enmeshed values in order to complete a successful career change. The implications of the disconfirmation of an instability model and the finding of an enmeshment-to-individuation process in the midlife career changer is discussed as it affects adult educators, counselors, and program planners.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Adult and Continuing Education

Department dc:contributor.department

Adult and Continuing Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1987

Author dc:creator

• Vitalis, Janet Keefe

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Boucouvalas, Marcie

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Bruck, William A.
• Chalofsky, Neal E.
• Humes, Charles W.
• Morgan, Samuel D.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/80193

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/80193