1. Curiosity, adult life stage and crisis
DR OLIVER ROBINSON
DR JAMES DEMETRE
DR JORDAN LITMAN

2. Crisis – Background theory
Erikson (1950; 1968; 1980)
predictable crises of adult life
Crisis as inevitable, normal and periodic
opportunity for growth
exploration and search essential to crisis-induced growth
ROBINSON and colleagues (ROBINson & smith, 2010; Robinson & Wright, 2013; Robinson & STELL, 2015)
research on quarterlife, midlife and laterlife crisis
Prevalence of crisis (retrospectively appraised)
Contents and process of crisis in different age groups

3. Curiosity – Background theory
Curiosity reflects a variety of dispositional tendencies to experience and express desire for different kinds of information:
Epistemic Curiosity: the desire for knowledge that motivates individuals to learn new ideas in order to stimulate interest or reduce uncertainty by filling knowledge gaps and solving problems
Perceptual Curiosity: Interest in examining a specific source of novel sensory- perceptual stimulation or broadly exploring the environment for it.
Interpersonal curiosity: the desire for new information about other people, including their emotions, private lives, and personal belongings
Intrapersonal curiosity: The desire to search for and learn new information about ones’ inner-self, including ones’ identity & purpose, feelings and past.

4. HYPOTHESIS
Based on previous data on retrospective crisis appraisal, “current Crisis prevalence” will be 20%+ of all age groups
Curiosity of all kinds will decline with age
creates an increased questioning mentality towards self and world, thus those having a CRISIS will be more curious than those not of the same age range
Curiosity and age: Although these forms of curiosity are theorized to remain relatively stable, as we get older, we have more experiences, and potentially learn more facts, more about others, and more about ourselves. As we learn more knowledge, we may find we have less inquisitiveness about these sources of information.
Additionally, times of crisis are unique in that they raise all sorts of questions about what we believe to be accurate about the world, others, and ourselves. Thus, even if these are relatively stable tendencies, they are likely to vary in terms of their degree of experience or expression as we age and during periods of sustained crisis.

5. METHOD

6. Sample ETHNICITY 87% WHITE BRITISH 5% WHITE NON-BRITISH 8% OTHER
REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION
Participant numbers by age, gender and total
Male
Female
Total
Teens 90 23
113
Twenties 85 62
147
Thirties 67 93
160
Forties 73 99
172
Fifties 86
120
206
Sixties 78
122
200
Seventies + 36 42
 Total
515
561
1076
ETHNICITY 87% WHITE BRITISH 5% WHITE NON-BRITISH 8% OTHER
Schooling and qualifications
84% state school, 16% independent school
GCSE or O-Level
27.0
A-Level / BTec / equivalent
28.4
Undergraduate Degree
22.4
Postgraduate Degree
13.6
Other
8.6
Representative of UK (87% white)

7. Trait curiosity measures
Perceptual Curiosity SCALE (Collins, Litman, & Spielberger, 2004): Interest in seeking out new sensory-perceptual stimulation
Specific – focus on a very specific source of new sensory-perceptual stimulation
e.g., “When I see a new fabric, I like to touch and feel it”
Diverse – looking for a range of new sensory-perceptual experiences; broad exploration of the environment
e.g., “I like exploring my surroundings”
The I/D Epistemic Curiosity (EC) scales (Litman, 2008) : desire for knowledge
Interest – involves the anticipated pleasure of new intellectual discoveries; ORIENTED TOWARDS “learning for fun”
e.g., “I enjoy exploring new ideas”
Deprivation – Involves eliminating OR reducing BOTHESOME states of intellectual uncertainty; Oriented towards “sleuthing and “solving problems”
(e.g., “I can spend hours on a single problem because I just can’t rest without knowing the answer”
All items are scored on a four point frequency rating scale ranging from 1 = Almost Never, 2 = Sometimes, 3 = Often, 4 = Almost always
Although scales are brief (many only 5 items,) they are highly internally consistent with alphas ranging from the high .7’s to mid .8’s.
EC scales in particular have been validated in large samples (several thousand!) across multiple languages, cultures (Argentine-Spanish, Italian, China, Germany, Indian Hindi) and age groups (3 – 70) using different translations or versions of the instruments.

8. Trait curiosity measures contd.
Interpersonal curiosity SCALE (Litman & Pezzo, 2007): desire for new information about others
Emotions: e.g., “I pay attention to people’s facial expressions to figure out how they feel”
Snooping: e.g., “I like to look at things in other people’s rooms.”
Spying and Prying: e.g., “If I found someone’s diary, I would read it”
Intrapersonal curiosity SCALE (Litman, Robinson & Demetre, 2016): desire to search for and learn about ones’ inner-self
Identity and Purpose e.g. “I wonder about my purpose in life”; “I ask myself “Who am I really?”
Reflections on Past e.g., “I reflect upon how good or bad my decisions in life have been”
Understanding Emotions and Motives e.g., “I try to make sense of how I feel”
We find evidence that desiring information about other people is psychometrically distinct from wanting to learn new purely intellectual knowledge (facts, solutions) or new sensory-perceptual information (sights, sounds, smells, tactile experiences)
We find evidence that “people” relevant information is different from facts or sights – people have futures, pasts, lives, secrets, and inner selves. They are active and dynamic, while facts and sensations are relatively more static or at least inanimate by comparison.
Again, both sets of instruments have high internal consistency and are correlated with levels of interest in gossip for IPC and having less self-knowledge for InC.

9. Current Crisis appraisal question
“A crisis episode is a period in adult life that is noticeably more difficult, stressful and unstable than normal, during which you sometimes struggle to cope. A crisis is also an important turning point in your life due to challenging changes that occur during it. Crisis episodes typically last for a year or two, but may be shorter or longer. Would you say that you are currently experiencing a crisis episode in your life?”
Yes – definitely
Yes – maybe No

10. FINDINGS
To correct for the possibility of Type 1 error, the required p value was corrected to p < .01, using a standard Bonferroni correction

11. % of age group in each category
Crisis PREVALENCE
Quarter-life (N=306)
Midlife
(N=378)
Later life
(N=274)
Yes – definitely
22%
24%
14%
Yes – maybe
36%
31% No
42%
40%
55%
% of age group in each category
Quarterlife = 20s and 30s
Midlife = 40s and 50s
Later life = 60s and above

12. Trait curiosity and age
Age differences significant at p<0.01 (using One-Way ANOVA) for epistemic (I-type and D-type), interpersonal and intrapersonal

13. CRISIS AND CURIOSITY: Quasi-experimental design and analysis
two groups – (a) crisis present and (b) crisis absent - were compared using a quasi-experimental design
participants who were unsure about the presence of crisis (those who responded ‘maybe’ to the crisis self-appraisal question) were excluded from analysis
a Two-Way MANOVA was conducted, with crisis and adult life stage entered as fixed factors. Total scores for the five curiosity scales were entered as DVs.
Assumptions for conducting a MANOVA were met, including homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices, absence of multicollinearity, and linear relationships between DVs
Outliers were removed prior to analysis.

14. MANOVA FINDINGS
A significant main effect of crisis was found for the overall multivariate model (Wilks’ Lambda = .86, F(5,616)=6.05, p < .001, η2 = .105)
For the individual DVs, crisis was shown to exert an effect on 4 of the 5 kinds of trait curiosity
intrapersonal curiosity (F(1,620)= 72.9, p < .001, η2 = .11)
INTERPERSONAL CURIOSITY (F(1, 620)= 8.3, p < .005, η2 = .01)
Perceptual curiosity (F(1,620)= 21.5, p < .001, η2 = .03)
D-type Epistemic Curiosity (F(1,620)= 13.3, p < .001, η2 = .02).
In summary, the findings supported our predictions that crisis would relate to elevated curiosity, but I-type EC did not conform to this pattern

15. Intrapersonal curiosity, life stage and crisis

16. Epistemic d-type curiosity, life stage and crisis

17. Epistemic I-type curiosity, life stage and crisis

18. Interpersonal curiosity, life stage and crisis

19. Perceptual curiosity, life stage and crisis
Note that Perceptual Curiosity is fairly stable in the absence of crisis – this may reflect the fact that sensory-perceptual exploration developed much earlier in human evolution than Epistemic, Interpersonal, or Intrapersonal Curiosity, and consequently is the most genetically driven of the various forms of curiosity.

20. Summary

21. Key finding: curiosity as the ‘silver lining’ of crisis
while crisis episodes bring distress and instability, they Also present opportunities to learn new information and solve problems.
This may result in new insights about the world, the self and others.
Armed with new insights, people may find their prevalent crises of adult life easier to bear
Enhanced curiosity and gaining new information may be the ‘silver lining’ of crisis.

22. KEY REFERENCE
Robinson, O.C., Demetre, J.D., Litman, J.A. (2016). Adult life stage and crisis as predictors of curiosity and authenticity: Testing inferences from Erikson’s lifespan theory. International Journal of Behavioral Development, in press.
For a copy, please
For more information on various expressions of trait curiosity and psychometric measures, please or

23. references
Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. London: W.W.Norton & Co.
Litman, J.A. (2005). Curiosity and the pleasures of learning: Wanting and liking new information. Cognition and Emotion, 19,
Litman, J.A. (2008). Interest and deprivation dimensions of epistemic curiosity. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1585–1595.
Litman, J.A., & Pezzo, M.V. (2007). Dimensionality of interpersonal curiosity. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1448–1459.
Robinson, O.C. & Smith, J.A. (2010). The stormy search for self in early adulthood: Developmental crisis and the dissolution of dysfunctional personae. The Humanistic Psychologist, 38, DOI /
Robinson,O.C. & Stell, A. (2015). Later life crisis: Towards a holistic model. Journal of Adult Development, 22, DOI: /s
Robinson, O.C. & Wright, G.R.T. (2013). The prevalence, types and perceived outcomes oF crisis episodes in early adulthood and midlife: A structured retrospective-autobiographical study. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 37, DOI: /