Today, adult development experts are virtually unanimous in their belief that midlife crises have been exaggerated (Bertrand, & Lachman; Brim, Rytt, & Kessler, 2014; Lanchman & Kranz, 2010). 2013;. In sum, the stage theories place too much emphasis on crises in development, especially midlife crises. Also, there often is considerable individual variation in the way people experience the stages, a topic that we turn to next.