S u m m a r y

Oravala S & Rönkä A (1999)

Turning points in the life course

Psykologia 34(4):274-280. Helsinki ISSN 0355-1067.

 

Important life events, such the birth of a child, often give rise to a new, lasting alteration in the developmental trajectory. This is called a turning point. Several studies evidence the importance of turning points on changing the direction of maladaptive developmental paths. In this paper, we present key turning points, discuss their meaning in people's lives, and indicate how antisocial development can change, and take a more adaptive direction as a result of positive experiences. The social role transitions of early adulthood often function as positive turning points, offering opportunities for the redirection of more longstanding antisocial life trajectories. Although discontinuities may prove to be turning points in the life course, sometimes an accentuated degree of continuity may be perceived as a turning point, too. Turning points seem to constitute part of the cumulative continuity of life courses, because people tend to formulate their lives through their own choices, values, behavior and personality in ways that make them coherent, at least to themselves.

 

Sanna Oravala, M.A., researcher and Anna Rönka Ph.D., assistant, Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, PO Box 35, FIN-40351, Jyväskylä, Finland.