Life transition is a psychological term that encompasses major changes in a person’s life, including crisis points such as divorce or retirement. These transitions can be stressful and require cognitive restructuring, but successful adaptation is possible with financial and emotional security, good health, and a supportive environment. Research into life transition theory is important, as evidenced by the European Bank’s Life in Transition survey, which studied the psychological effects of transitioning from authoritarian to democratic governments. However, the trigger that successfully takes an individual from a current view of reality to a new one is still unclear.
Life transition is a general psychological term that is an expansion of the original idea of the midlife crisis or transition that many people experience in their early 40s. It is an attempt to chart major changes in a person’s life as they grow up, such as from childhood to adulthood, school to work, and single life to married life. The life transition process theory also includes crisis points in individuals’ lives due to divorce, death of someone close, loss of a career due to retirement, or other reasons, among others. Each set of major life transitions offers unique opportunities and challenges for the individual to adjust and to see themselves and their place in society in a new light.
Every life transition carries an element of increased stress, whether it promotes positive or negative change. This is often because the individual is dealing with a series of circumstances that are largely unfamiliar to him on a deeply personal level, whether or not many others have gone through the same life transition before him. Major adjustments of this type are a key area of research in occupational psychology and psychiatric practice to determine the best methods of coping and recovery.
Some of the key findings of life transition states research are not intuitive. Researchers, for example, have found that stress levels reach a crisis point about six months after a transition has occurred and can often cause similar transitions in family members or close friends who witness the change but aren’t directly affected by it. Transitions also extend beyond the effects of the central event and change an individual’s life in other profound ways. Because individuals have varying levels of coping skills, a life transition can be unexpectedly easy or difficult. Key factors leading to a successful life transition include financial and emotional security, good health, and a supportive environment for change, as well as someone using previous transition skills from past crises to manage the current one.
Research into life transition theory is so important that the European Bank conducted a large Life in Transition (LiTS) survey in 2006 which involved collecting data on 29,000 individuals in 28 countries, spanning a 15-year period . Its purpose was to inform government policymakers about the psychological effects on societies transitioning from authoritarian-based to democratic-based governments. This involved people living in some European, Mongolian and former Soviet Union nations that are now part of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The research found optimism and adaptability to unstable economic conditions more prevalent in young people, but long-lasting levels of distrust of government, and the benefits of that change have pervaded societies at large. Collective resistance to adopting more Western styles of thinking necessary for success in competitive and market-based cultures has kept many nations in a state of transitory limbo.
While the nature of a person’s outlook on life has been studied extensively and life coaching exists for a wide range of crises, there is still considerable mystery about how the transition process evolves. One of the main areas where there is a lack of understanding of how perceptual changes occur is in how the mind adjusts to the new state of being. Extensive cognitive restructuring, or the ordering of thinking processes in the brain, is often necessary for major life transitions. This appears to be a naturally adaptive condition of human beings, but the trigger that successfully takes an individual from a current view of reality to a new one is something that has not been clearly established.
Much of the ambiguity of a life transition involves the fact that the circumstances that trigger it can be unpredictable. When an event occurs without a clear cause, such as the death of a child, a sudden increase in wealth through an inheritance, or an unexpected need to move away from home, there is often no story to a person’s experience on how to cope with the event. In such cases, advice and guidance from professionals or family members can often ring hollow and individuals are forced to call upon their own unique mindset to life to effectively resolve the crisis in the way they feel is best for their future.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
