Men in Midlife

This study examines the male experience of midlife and was undertaken to gain insight into the differences between the experiences of midlife males of different personality type. The study highlights how counsellors and human resources practitioners can benefit from using personality assessment with midlife clients/employees. Chapter one includes a review of the literature related to the influence of personality type on the male midlife experience. For this study, based on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® personality preferences, the interview responses of ten Intuitive-Feeling (NF) males aged 40 to 55 years were compared with ten Sensing-Thinking (ST) males. Chapter two contains the first part of the study which focuses on midlife career. Chapter three consists of the second part of the study which explores notions of midlife identity, midlife crisis and the nature of men s relationship with self and others. The final chapter contains a brief synopsis of the two different aspects of the study. Overall it was found that personality type does influence the male midlife experience. Several differences were observed between the two personality types.