Three years ago when I started working with seniors, I came to understand that there was a definite difference between 60 year olds and 90 year olds. First, I noticed that 90 year olds had a particular kind of stubbornness. If they didn’t want to do something, they didn’t. How do you tell a 90 year old that their eating habits are creating health problems? They have lived to 90 so they must have been living and eating right.

As I was reflecting on what I was feeling about my aging self and observing others, I began to wonder if someone had researched and written about personality changes in aging. Then, I went to a conference and heard Dr. Gene Cohen, whose material I used extensively in my last article about the aging brain. I am going to talk about his work again because I think it is so good. Dr. Cohen is a psychiatrist and gerontologist (a specialist on aging).

Dr. Cohen developed a theory about the aging personality from of his extensive work with seniors. Like development at other ages, these developmental stages happen whether or not you want them to. As with all developmental stages, how you negotiate them depends on your previous experiences, especially the traumas, failures, and successes you have had in your life. By the time you reach 50 or 60, you have had a lot of experiences. This means that how we negotiate these changes varies considerably from person to person.

Dr. Cohen described four stages beginning at about age 50. These stages are: Midlife Re-evaluation, Liberation, Summing Up, and Encore. In this and in the next few articles I am going to describe these four stages, their characteristics, and components. I will give examples and hopefully interview neighbourhood seniors who exemplify these stages.

Now, the thing about stages is that they are not distinct like rooms in a house. These stages are more like living in a bachelor apartment where the sleeping area, the living room, and the kitchen are all in one room and you move between them depending on your particular activity.

On an average day in this bachelor apartment you may spend more time doing one activity in one area. But at a certain point in the day you have finished cooking, and so move on to the next area. Similarly, with age related personality changes there is movement back and forth, but there is also a distinct flow and at a certain point you move on to the next stage.

Writers and researchers about childhood and adult development have noted that if you didn’t successfully negotiate an earlier developmental phase, the uncompleted tasks of that stage can create problems at a later time. In seniors, this may or may not be true. This is a new field and some things are yet unknown, and before the mid 20th century there were not enough people living long enough to describe and understand these later life changes.

Now, the thing about stages is that they are not distinct like rooms in a house. These stages are more like living in a bachelor apartment where the sleeping area, the living room, and the kitchen are all in one room and you move between them depending on your particular activity.

The first stage Cohen describes is Midlife Re-evaluation, more commonly known as the midlife crisis. Cohen points out that it isn’t necessarily a crisis because many people simply re-evaluate quietly and realize their life is just fine. Even so, this is the age when you may decide to do those things you had put off because you were busy getting your career on track and raising children. This is the age where you look at your life and decide now is the time. At that age I became much more active in politics as I stopped being afraid of who I was and of speaking up.

This stage begins at about age 50 and continues to about age 65, although for some it begins sooner. Last week I spoke with a McCauley resident who quit his long-standing and successful career in broadcasting to find a new path at age 47. A friend of mine, also in her late 40s, developed a “bucket list” which included learning to ride a motorcycle. She borrowed equipment and took a lesson and then knew she didn’t need to do that again.

At age 50, my partner decided the upward management path was the wrong direction and began to change by returning to educational work in Bolivia though Canadian Crossroads International. Probably most of us know someone who has changed their lives significantly in their 50s.

This re-evaluation fits together with brain development. At about age 45 the emotional centres of our brains are fully developed and we are emotionally stronger. Therefore, we are not afraid to take stock and re-examine our lives. We are ready to take on new challenges and so we do. That is midlife re-evaluation.

Next month, I will be interviewing Dr. Daria Shewchuk, a former McCauley resident who exemplifies this re-evaluation phase.

Sherry lives in McCauley and is a carrier for BMC News.