5.     Searching for self in work and love

When asked about the meaning of life, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud replied Arbeiten und Lieben, working and loving.  It is in these two areas of their life, in career preparation and in their search for meaningful relationships, that today’s emerging adults explore their identity.  These are the areas in which they want to find out who they are and what can be expected of them.   And the end product of this search is ideally that they have learned: 1) to take responsibility for themselves, 2) to make their own decisions, and 3) to become (financially) self-sufficient.   These are what they believe to be the marks of being an adult.  It is only after they have achieved these three goals that they feel responsible enough to enter a committed relationship with a life partner, to marry and to start a family.

In searching for a suitable career they want to discover what sort of work they find satisfying, what sort of work they are good at and what sort of work gives them the best chance of remaining gainfully employed throughout their life.

So, in the area of educationally preparing themselves for a career they may change their major in university a number of times in order to be well prepared.   Then, once they graduate, they usually try out a number of jobs, all of them aimed at laying the groundwork for their life’s vocation.