Abstract
Research on identity development has focused primarily on the stages of adolescence and emerging adulthood. The focus of this chapter is on identity development during the middle adult years (ages 35–50), with an emphasis on those adults who have had relative success in establishing a meaningful sense of personal identity during earlier developmental stages. The challenges of the middle adult years that threaten eudaimonic well-being involve all domains and may include job burnout, the loss of a romantic partner through divorce or death, difficulties in maintaining religious or political idealism, and generational differences in ethnic identity expression. In order to maintain or restore eudaimonic functioning, identity flexibility entails finding new outlets for current skills and values either along established or new types of endeavors, identifying and development of new talents, and/or resetting priorities and improving time management skills to promote goal attainment. The predictors of successful use of identity flexibility will also be considered.
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Waterman, A.S. (2017). “Just When I Knew All of Life’s Answers, They Changed the Questions”: A Eudaimonist Perspective on Identity Flexibility During the Adult Years. In: Sinnott, J. (eds) Identity Flexibility During Adulthood. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55658-1_21
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