It is especially important at this time to study the personality growth of late adolescence into young adulthood since the me-dian age of young people in the United States gradually in-creased from 27.9 years in 1970 and 30.0 years in 1980 to 30.6 years in 1982. This young adult age group under consideration here ranges from ages 20 to the early thirties. A person enter-ing the adult world is considered by Levinson and his col-leagues (Levinson, Darrow, Klein, Levinson, and McKee, 1978) to be 22 to 28 years of age, and the period of transition may be as long as five more years to age 33. Levinson et al. call the first part of this period of development a novice phase. "The primary overriding task of the novice phase is to make a place for oneself in the adult world and create a life structure that will be viable in the world and suitable for the self" (p. 72). However, young adulthood is frequently met with significant pathological regressions and failures in consolidation of the personality. Hanna Segal quotes Conrad's poignant personal description when he said the "green sickness of late youth descended on me and carried me off" (Segal, 1984, p. 5).