Two-polarities models of personality propose that personality development evolves through a dialectic synergistic interaction between two fundamental developmental psychological processes across the life span--the development of interpersonal relatedness on the one hand and of self-definition on the other. This article offers a broad review of…

Although lost opportunities and mistaken expectations are unpleasant to think and talk about, these experiences may have a role to play in personality development. Drawing on research using narratives of lost possible selves, the authors review the relations of regrettable experiences to 2 important and independent aspects of maturity, happiness…

Personality psychology studies how psychological systems work together. Consequently, the field can act as a unifying resource for the broader discipline of psychology. Yet personality's current fieldwide organization promotes a fragmented view of the person, seen through such competing theories as the psychodynamic, trait, and humanistic. There…

Critiques recent research on the effects of birth order on intelligence and personality, which found that the between-family design revealed that birth order negatively related to intelligence, while the within-family design revealed that birth order was unrelated to intelligence. Suggests that it may not be intelligence that co-varies with birth…

Criticizes accepted premises regarding family influence on the child: (1) particular external conditions are inevitably associated with fixed consequences for all children; (2) some psychological structures created by early experience are stable over time; and (3) the mother-infant bond is the primary determinant of the child's future…

Discusses implications of recent evidence for genetic influences on personality development and psychopathology. Presents a model of the childhood origins of psychopathology that incorporates genetics and gives special emphasis to the role of parental conflict in the previously neglected middle childhood years. (Author/GC)

Examines the connections between the experience of social history and personality development. Outlines a model that demonstrates how the impact of social events is mediated by life stage. Interprets longitudinal data collected over the past 40 years on women's work and family lives in terms of the model. (FMW)

Discusses a cognitive perspective on personality, focusing on how dispositions are cognitively expressed and maintained in social interaction. Shows how individuals interpret life tasks in light of their most accessible schemas, envisaging alternative future selves, and devising cognitive strategies to guide behavior. Discusses adaptiveness of…

Reviews research on the heritability of intellectual factors, personality factors, and psychopathology. Discusses the importance of investigating within-family environmental differences in order to understand the environmental origins of individual differences in development. (Author/BJV)