Psychologists generally agree on the importance of early events in personality development, yet until now there has not been an opportunity to look at the personal lives of a group of adults over a considerable time. Subjects examined were 16 men and 44 women, parents of the subjects of the Guidance Study, a longitudinal study of the Institute of…

Observed 193 children at 4.5 years who had been classified at 4 months as high or low reactive to stimulation for signs of inhibited or uninhibited behavior. Children classified as high reactive were less spontaneous and less sociable than low-reactive children, but only a small proportion maintained a consistently inhibited or uninhibited…

Examined role of infant and toddler temperament in predicting 2-year olds' empathy. Found that children showed relatively more concern for mother's distress, but were also responsive to unfamiliar victims. Unreacting infants showing little affect also showed less empathy toward the unfamiliar adult almost two years later. Inhibition toward…

This study investigated the long-term stability of the nine temperament subcategories which underlie the Thomas and Chess temperament clusters. A homogeneous sample of 55 children and parents was recruited (26 remained at the final data collection interval) and parents provided questionnaire responses on their child's temperament at 2, 4, 6, 18,…

The predictive relation between neonatal behavior and temperament at 24 months was examined for 67 infants selected from the full socioeconomic status (SES) distribution. Initial ratings were made when the infants were one to four days old. Irritable neonates were rated as more upset, less attentive to stimuli, and less responsive to the staff at…

Results argue against the too frequent use of human figure drawings as a single, stable, and accurate measure of intellectual ability. (Authors/CB)

While there is a general consensus that temperament forms the enduring, biologically based foundation of personality and that this biological basis should imply some continuity within the individual across time, there is a limited literature exploring linkages between these areas. The purpose of this article was to provide an initial assessment of…

Compares the responses of 65 mothers and 42 fathers who completed the Child Rearing Practices Report first when their child was three years old and again at 12 years. Despite many changes in the families, considerable continuity in childrearing orientations was shown. Shifts in emphasis coincided with developmentally appropriate areas for change.…

A longitudinal study of the maturing of 68 professional and managerial men provided adolescent and adult test, questionnaire, and interview data about their personalities and competence that were predictive of their vocational adaptation. (Author)

The nature of adolescent trait change appears less dictated by are-related components than by the type of social change patterns which are setting the environmental milieu for adolescents of all ages over a given period of time. (Authors)

Summarizes the major forms of cross-cultural research on personality development and discusses their contribution to developmental research. Also discusses some major issues in research on acculturation. (Author/SS)

In a study of eating problems in adolescent girls, researchers saw 193 White adolescent females and their mothers in the girls' middle school years and two years later. Examined was the emergence of eating problems as a function of pubertal growth, body image, personality development, and family relationships. (RH)

The present study used meta-analytic techniques (number of samples = 92) to determine the patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course. Results showed that people increase in measures of social dominance (a facet of extraversion), conscientiousness, and emotional stability, especially in young adulthood (age 20 to…

In a response to comments by P. T. Costa, Jr., and R. R. McCrae on the current authors' original article, the authors show that Costa and McCrae's writings on personality suggest a belief in immutability of personality traits. The authors agree with Costa and McCrae that new personality trait models that provide an accurate lower order structure…