The contributors to this volume demonstrate that middle-aged adulthood encompasses more than specific years, biological changes or orchestrations of earlier adaptations. Rather, professionals are now viewing the middle years as a period in the life cycle, like other periods, in which a person's past endowments and deficits, as well as present opportunities and restraints, all interact, with consequences that influence changes in self-perception and the boundary between self and the interpersonal world. With these ideas in mind, the book is intended to serve two major purposes. The first purpose is to provide the reader with a survey of the accumulating literature on the social and personal factors that influence not only the alterations in the rhythm and timing of life events, thus affecting perceptions of self and adaptational patterns, but also the developing personality and future life prospects. The second purpose of this book is to alert the reader to those developmental challenges, options and potential problematic areas that have important implications in the clinical setting. Each of the nine chapters that follow examines a particular area within the field of middle adulthood development. Each chapter can be read as an up-to-date and authoritative contribution in the area it covers.