Scroll below this post to last week when we discussed the stages of crisis as well as a practice question.Â
In a situational crisis, the crisis origin is a sudden, random, shocking, and often catastrophic event that cannot be anticipated or controlled. The event threatens the person’s sense of biological, psychological, and/or social well-being and, therefore, produces some disequilibrium and a possible crisis. Factors that determine whether a person will experience such an event as a crisis include his perception or interpretation of the event and available coping mechanisms and social supports. A situational crisis leads to emotional and psychological trauma when the stressful event shatters the person’s sense of security and makes him feel helpless and vulnerable.
Sources of situational crises include physical illness and injury (e.g., diagnosis of a serious illness, physical disability, surgery); unexpected or untimely death of a loved one (e.g., fatal accident or illness, suicide, homicide); crime, including the experiences of victims and offenders (e.g., assault, rape, domestic violence, incarceration or release of an offender); natural and man-made disasters (e.g., flood, fire, earthquake, airline crash, car accident); war and related acts (e.g., terrorist attack); other unexpected social or interpersonal events (e.g., separation or divorce); and other material or environmental losses or events (e.g., the loss of one’s job, a disease epidemic, severe economic depression) (Slaikeu, 1984).
With a maturational crisis, the crisis origin is embedded in maturational processes – that is, the person struggles with a transition from one life stage (or role) to another. Because these transitions are part of normal development, they can be anticipated. Most transition states are universal in that they consist of normal life-cycle passages from one developmental stage to the next. Other transition states are nonuniversal in that not all people experience them during the course of normal development. These include changes in social status, such as a shift from student to worker or from worker to retiree. Like universal developmental transitions, nonuniversal transitions are usually anticipated and can be prepared for.
During each stage of development, a person undergoes significant psychological, social, and/or physical change and is challenged by certain developmental tasks. Transition issues, tasks, and possible crisis events associated with each developmental stage include the following (Slaikeu, 1984):
**Although people generally experience an increase in anxiety during transition states, a crisis is not inevitable.Â
Childhood: Tasks center on socialization, relationship with parents, friendships, and success/failure in school. Potential crisis events include peer conflict, loss of friends through moving, conflict with parents, school difficulties, and, in early childhood, entering school.
Adolescence: Identity issues dominate. Potential crisis events include success/failure in academics or athletics, graduation from high school, going to college, conflict with parents over personal habits and lifestyle, breakup with boy/girlfriend, unwanted pregnancy, career indecision, and difficulty on the first job.
Young adulthood (ages 18-34): The person is preoccupied with intimacy, parenthood, and getting started in a career or occupation. Potential crisis events include rejection by a boy/girlfriend, an extramarital affair, separation/divorce, unwanted pregnancy, birth of a child, inability to have children, illness in a child, discipline problems with children, inability to manage the demands of parenthood, academic difficulties, job dissatisfaction, poor performance in a chosen career, financial difficulties, and conflict between career and family goals.
Middle adulthood (ages 35-50): Preoccupations include reworking previous developmental issues and confronting new issues and challenges – the person evaluates what he has accomplished personally and professionally. Potential crisis events include   an awareness of physical decline, chronic illness (in self or spouse), rejection by  adolescent children, decision-making about caring for an elderly parent, death or  prolonged illness of parents, career setback, conflicts at work, financial concerns, moving associated with a job promotion, unemployment, sense of discrepancy between life goals and life achievements, dissatisfaction with goals achieved, regret over past decisions related to marrying/not marrying or having children/not having children, marital problems, returning to work after raising children, and death of friends.
Maturity (ages 50-65): Preoccupations include consolidating one’s experience and resources and reorienting one’s life toward later years. Potential crisis events include  health problems, decision-making related to retirement, resistance to retirement, changes in physical living arrangements, conflict with grown children, adjusting to an “empty  nest,” death of a spouse, divorce, and conflict with parents.
Old age (i.e., retirement until death): The person is preoccupied with sharing wisdom from life experiences, evaluating the past, and achieving a sense of satisfaction with his life. Potential crisis events include illness and disability, death of a spouse and/or friends, financial difficulties, interpersonal conflicts with children or with peers in one’s new living arrangements, neglect by adult children, difficulty in adjusting to retirement, and awareness of loneliness.