Question

After reading about Middle Adulthood I truly believe that midlife crisis can exist in middle aged adults. Midlife crisis may begin to occur when major changes happen during this period of time. What I mean by this is major physical changes in both men and women that show their aging more and more. Or a divorce happens where our textbook uses the example of, “A 40-year old man who divorces his wife, trades in his Ford Taurus station wagon for a red Saab convertible and marries a much younger woman makes a greater impression than a happily married man who remains with his spouse (and Taurus) through middle adulthood.” (Feldman, 2015, p.379). Contributing factors od divorce in the middle adult years are as follows. A couple may spend less time together in middle aged years than in earlier years. Another reason is that they are more concerned with their own happiness. Which makes a spouse believe that divorcing will bring them their lost happiness. (Feldman, 2015, p.384). Another reason for divorce is that romantic, passionate feelings may fade over time…In some marriages the lack of excitement and boredom leads to marital dissatisfaction. (Feldman, 2015, p.384). Finally, the biggest reason for divorce is infidelity which is when a spouse engages in sexual activity with a person outside of the marriage. (Feldman, 2015, p.384). These are the most common contributing factors of divorce in the middle-aged years. There are a few ways to prevent divorce after 25 years of marriage. Holding realistic expectations where couples understand that there will be things that couples may not like about each other but are still accepting of it. They remain to focus on the positive such as thinking about things that they like mostly about their partner which help accept the things that bother them. Compromising which simply means the couple understands that they are not going to win every single argument that they get into. And the last thing is avoiding suffering in silence which is when something bothers a partner they let their partner know instead of keeping silent. It allows them to speak about the problem in a calm way together. (Feldman, 2015, p.384). Although divorce rates are rising in the United States if these factors were taken in seriously I feel that the divorce rate would be much lower. However, if one is truly unhappy they should get the situation handled after trying whatever it takes to save the marriage. IN 9-10 LINES, WHAT DO YOU AGREE ON THIS PAGE OR HOW WOULD COMMENT?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) The passage above has three parts. The first part describes a mid-life crisis, the second describes why big changes in a marriage might occur which could lead to a divorce and the third is how a couple might be able to avoid a divorce.

When it comes to a mid-life crisis, it generally occurs because individuals who would have been too busy with work before, have now possibly retired or have grown up children. This is when they tend to have more time on their hands to notice the changes in their bodies and the changes around them. These changes indicate the fact that they are aging. In a futile attempt to hold on to their youth, these individuals may undergo a mid-life crisis. Therefore, it might take place with people who might not necessarily like the idea of aging gracefully or might not have yet noticed that each stage of life has its own pros and cons. Sometimes, a catalyst like a divorce or the sprouting of grey hair or even a mild heart-attack might cause a mid-life crisis. Since all of these events are associated with being old, it might hit the individual that the younger stages of their life aren’t particularly coming back.

The second and third parts of the passage are both about marriage. Making any relationship work would require a certain level of trust and openness. Marriages tend not work when couples expect each stage of the relationship to be exactly the same. The excitement and passion from the initial stages eventually change into friendship, compassion and trust in a healthy relationship. If a couple expects a relationship to be intransient throughout life, perhaps that is when the relationship becomes unhappy and might even lead to divorce. To avoid this, it is essential that a couple should get counseled or perhaps even talk to each other openly about their expectations of the relationship and where they see each other in 2 decades. It is essential that they describe their physical, mental and emotional expectations of how they might each progress over the years.

This might cause the couple to accept the fact that changes are inevitable in life and might even help them to cope gracefully through the middle adulthood stage.