Directions: Gather Data: For this project, you will compare what scientific research and the popular media have to say about midlife crises. For the scientific research, you should search for the term midlife crisis in the most recent volumes of Psychological Abstracts or the electronic version, PsychLit. You can also use academic websites for the scientific data. For the review of popular literature, you should search for the most recent articles, popular self-help, newspaper articles or other sites on the Internet. Write the paper: 1. Introduce the topic of midlife crisis. Give reasons why the reader should be interested in and/or concerned about midlife crisis. 2. Give the characteristics of midlife transition and midlife crisis. 3. Compare earlier writings about midlife transition/crisis to later, more current writings. 4. According to the scientific community (psychologists and other social scientists), what variables contribute to a midlife crisis? 5. According to the popular literature (magazines, newspapers and self-help books), what variables contribute to a midlife crisis? 6. Do the authors of the popular literature and the research articles report similar findings? At what points do they seem to agree and disagree? 7. For the conclusion, summarize ways to prevent and/or cope with midlife crisis. 8. Do you think there is a quarterlife crisis as well as a midlife crisis? .
