Trust, Identity, and Ego Integrity: Modeling Erikson’s Core Stages Over 34 Years

Erikson’s core stages (trust, identity, and ego integrity) were modeled over 34 years from college through the late 1950s among 175 men and women tested on the Inventory of Psychosocial Development (Constantinople, Dev Psychol 1:357–372, 1969) testing the hypothesis that each, although united by the theme of wholeness and continuity, would show distinct developmental trajectories. Stage 1 (Trust versus Mistrust) followed a positive linear trajectory and Stage 5 (Identity versus Diffusion) followed a curvilinear trajectory that leveled off in middle adulthood. Stage 8 (Ego Integrity versus Despair) followed a curvilinear trajectory with an increasing trend in middle adulthood. The unique trajectories for each of the psychosocial crisis stages were expected on the basis of Erikson’s theory. In addition, there was also significant variability in either the mean or slope of each stage demonstrating individual differences in change, a central tenet of Erikson’s life span developmental approach.     

短时记忆及其策略一生发展的横断研究

采用横向研究方法探索短时记忆及策略的一生发展状况。测量120名6—70岁被试在三种材料上的记忆广度,并通过观察记录策略的运用。结果发现,记忆广度在16岁达到最高峰,以后下降。不同材料的记忆广度具有相同的发展趋势,近似于年龄对数的二次函数。策略成熟的时间与记忆广度的最高峰的年龄基本相同,在成年期一直保持在较高水平。45岁以后,策略应用的效率有所下降。论文还根据本研究的结果探讨了短时记忆一生发展的具体模式。     

CHANGES AND CHALLENGES OF MID LIFE: PART 1

This article reviews the developmental literature on middle adulthood and describes some of the main physical and psychosocial changes that occur. Critical psychological issues are identified that evolve from the reevaluation of former goals, values, and achievements. The issues are related to the time-left orientation characteristic of mid life. Sociocultural changes involving new developmental stages in the family, work, and leisure are discussed. Changes in physical and cognitive capacities and functions are described. These changes are regarded as crises since they challenge the individual with options that can lead to further individualism and life satisfaction.     

Identity and Psychosocial Development in Adulthood

Psychosocial development in adulthood is viewed from several perspectives. Stage-specific crises in ego growth associated with different life cycle periods are addressed in terms of status measures expanding on Erikson's polar alternative resolutions (Erikson, 1959). The developmental linkages between these stages are discussed using these status measures, and development from one status to another within a particular psychosocial stage is examined. With respect to identity itself, the cyclical process that might describe identity re-formulation through the adult psychosocial stages is discussed and illustrated. Finally, 2 case studies are presented as examples of adult psychosocial development.     

Personality Trait Change in Adulthood

ABSTRACT— Recent longitudinal and cross-sectional aging research has shown that personality traits continue to change in adulthood. In this article, we review the evidence for mean-level change in personality traits, as well as for individual differences in change across the life span. In terms of mean-level change, people show increased self-confidence, warmth, self-control, and emotional stability with age. These changes predominate in young adulthood (age 20–40). Moreover, mean-level change in personality traits occurs in middle and old age, showing that personality traits can change at any age. In terms of individual differences in personality change, people demonstrate unique patterns of development at all stages of the life course, and these patterns appear to be the result of specific life experiences that pertain to a person's stage of life.     

童年中晚期同伴侵害对儿童心理社会适应影响的纵向分析

采用间隔两年的纵向设计, 通过对1767名儿童的同伴侵害以及孤独、抑郁、攻击、行为不良、同伴接纳、同伴拒绝等心理社会适应指标进行调查, 综合运用变量定向的方法和个体定向的方法考察了童年中晚期儿童心理社会适应发展的结果模式, 以及同伴侵害对儿童心理社会适应发展的影响。结果发现, (1)身体侵害、关系侵害与心理社会适应各指标存在显著的即时与纵向相关关系。(2)儿童心理社会适应结果表现为内化问题、外化问题、同伴拒绝、正常发展4种模式。(3)判别分析显示, 9岁的同伴侵害(主要为身体侵害)能预测同伴拒绝、外化问题适应结果模式, 11岁的同伴侵害(主要为关系侵害)能预测内化问题、同伴拒绝适应结果模式。这些结果表明同伴侵害与儿童心理社会适应间的联系具有异质性, 并且先前和当前的侵害经历以及不同类型的侵害与心理社会适应间的联系因适应领域的不同而存在差异。     

Poor,Rural Women: Spirituality,Religion, and Wellness Across the Life Span

Researchers have suggested strategies in the spiritual domain for improving wellness. This study explored relationships among spirituality, religiosity, and wellness for poor, rural women in early adulthood, early–middle adulthood, and middle–later adulthood. Implications for evidence‐based strategies to improve wellness for poor, rural women across the life span are provided.     

The Dynamics of Emotions and Life Cycle Identity

Emotions are discussed as organizers and motivators in the dynamics of identity across the life span. Discrete emotions, functionalist, and dynamic systems approaches to emotion development are applied to issues of change and continuity in identity, considered within Erikson's psychosocial model of lifespan development (Erikson, 1963). The contributions of emotion to both identity-relevant processes (ex-ploration and commitment) and outcomes (the identity statuses of achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion) are discussed. Two main premises guide this discussion. One is that individual differences in emotion help to identify paths along the trajectory of identity emergence, consolidation, and change. Another is that psychosocial transition phases, as marked by Eriksonian theory, are likely to be times of maximal influence between developments in the emotion system and psychosocial identity. A review of emotion development is presented that argues for the continued vitality of the emotion system throughout adulthood and that highlights the importance of negative emotion. As well, suggestions are offered for linking emotion development to adulthood identity stability and change. Excerpts from a biographical case study of Ingmar Bergman (Lahr, 1999) are presented as illustrative examples in the concluding sections.     

Everyday mysticism: Spiritual development in later adulthood

Most cultures contain a belief that aging, with its long span of life experience, can lead to spiritual growth or development. Theories of spiritual development have focused primarily on stages of spiritual growth, with less attention to its relation to the cultural life course. This paper posits that contemplative, mystical experience is the primary psychological dynamic that enables the qualitative change in life perspective that we associate with spiritual growth. While theoretically possible at any adult age, this shift in perspective is correlated with physical and psychological aging, with the relaxation of social demands that typifies the life stages of later adulthood, and with the simple, close-to-home lives led by many individuals after age 75.     

Emerging Adults’ Outlook on the Future in the Midst of COVID-19: The Role of Personality Profiles

Journal of Adult Development - Classic lifespan developmental theory describes emerging adulthood and the transition to adulthood as important periods for thinking about one’s future life...     

The time of our lives: life span development of timing and event tracking

Life span developmental profiles were constructed for 305 participants (ages 4-95) for a battery of paced and unpaced perceptual-motor timing tasks that included synchronize-continue tapping at a wide range of target event rates. Two life span hypotheses, derived from an entrainment theory of timing and event tracking, were tested. A preferred period hypothesis predicted a monotonic slowing of a preferred rate (tempo) of event tracking across the life span. An entrainment region hypothesis predicted a quadratic profile in the range of event rates that produced effective timing across the life span; specifically, age-specific entrainment regions should be narrower in childhood and late adulthood than in midlife. Findings across tasks provide converging support for both hypotheses. Implications of these findings are discussed for understanding critical periods in development and age-related slowing of event timing.     

Adolescent Developmental Disruptions: Haunted by the Future,Guarded by Haunting Ancestors

This article will explore two potentially disruptive developmental phenomena that occur during life transitions. One is the role of anticipatory haunting during adolescence, and the other is the strict adherence to an already defined life narrative at the gate to young adulthood (Levy-Warren, 2016a, 2016b). Historically, in psychoanalytic theory, we have looked at flaws in an adolescent’s foundation as causal in adolescent paralysis. Anticipatory haunting, fearing what is to come, also can be traumatic enough to disrupt an adolescent’s development. Similarly, in the transition from late adolescence to young adulthood, we have assumed that the past must be left behind for the youth to progress in development and that focusing on the past can inhibit the envisioning of a future. In this instance, the necessity for a particular kind of reworking of the young adult’s history so that a future can be envisioned is articulated. Each of these points of view represents a departure from traditional ways of understanding and treating developmental disruptions.     

Age and outstanding occupational achievement: Lehman revisited

The findings of H. C. Lehman's (1953, Age and achievement, Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press) study of age and outstanding occupational achievement were reviewed along with the explanations which have been put forth to account for the finding that major contributions are most likely to occur in young adulthood. Subsequently, an alternative explanation was proposed based on the central developmental tasks facing individuals in young adulthood and middle age. More specifically, it is argued, in accordance with N. Haan (1981, in R. M. Lerner & N. A. Busch-Rossnagel (Eds.), Individuals as producers of their own development: A life span perspective, New York, Academic Press), that young adults employ an accommodating adaptive style, and that the cognitive and behavioral concomitants of this style may increase the likelihood of major contributions. It is also noted that the realistic, controlling adaptive style of the middle aged would tend to facilitate minor contributions. Finally, the broader literature was reviewed in relation to these hypotheses, and certain practical implications of this reinterpretation were laid out.     

从毕生发展的视角看健康的贫富差距

健康的贫富差距是所有个体从出生到死亡都需要面对的现实, 也是全球所有国家都存在的社会问题。目前已经有相当的理论和实证研究尝试从毕生发展的视角理解健康的贫富差距。在毕生发展研究中, 健康的贫富差距有其独特的概念和测量方式。该领域重要的理论包括累积优(劣)势假设、累积不公平模型和社会阶层文化周期模型。研究者就儿童期、青少年期、成年期和老年期的健康贫富差距开展了大量的实证研究。未来毕生发展研究和实践的可能方向包括早年和当前社会经济地位的交互作用、社会经济地位的稳定特征和情境效应、跨领域实践干预等。毕生发展视角的健康贫富差距研究有助于理解健康贫富差距的发展根源和形成过程, 是促进国民健康和开展健康公平实践工作的理论基础。     

稳定性与可变性：西方儿童青少年“大五”人格发展研究概述

弄清儿童青少年人格发展特点,可为人格发展与教育工作提供参考。文章梳理了近30年西方儿童青少年“大五”人格发展的研究进展,区分了人格发展的两种主要表现形式,并分别从这两方面总结出儿童青少年“大五”人格结构的稳定性、人格特质平均水平的可变性。最后基于现有研究存在的问题,结合当前时代特点,提出未来研究方向。     

Developmental Psychopathology: Reactions, Reflections, Projections

In this paper, I describe the field of developmental psychopathology, discuss its major tenets, and delineate its boundaries with other disciplines with an eye toward the future. I articulate how I envision those aspects of developmental psychopathology that I view as central to the discipline affecting the field and evolving over time. The current status and suggested directions for a number of issues are discussed, including: the interface between normal and abnormal development; developmental mechanisms and processes across the life span; the need for an interdisciplinary approach; prevention and intervention; and training. I believe that a continued and expanded interface between the study of normal and atypical development will span the dualisms that exist between the clinical study of and research into disorders of childhood and adulthood, between basic and applied research, and between psychology and biology. If fostered, I envision an exciting new era of theoretical and empirical work in the developmental sciences.     

Dwelling and Seeking in Late Adulthood: The Psychosocial Implications of Two Types of Religious Orientation

SUMMARY

This article summarizes quantitative findings and presents two illustrative case studies showing how religious dwelling and spiritual seeking evolve over the adult life course and relate to psychosocial functioning in late adulthood. The data come from the Institute of Human Development (IHD) longitudinal study of men and women. Religious dwellers tend to emphasize traditional forms of religious behavior whereas spiritual seekers emphasize innovative religious practices. In the IHD study, the religious involvement of the dwellers tended to be highly stable over the life course whereas spirituality gained in salience in the second half of adulthood. In late adulthood, religious dwelling was associated with maintaining close and warm relations with others and communal involvement, and during times of adversity, religiousness served as a buffer against the loss of life satisfaction. Spiritual seeking was associated with an emphasis on personal growth, creativity, and acquiring new knowledge. Spiritual growth was particularly characteristic of introspective individuals who in early adulthood experienced stressful life events.     

Care Orientation in the Teens as a Predictor of Young Adult Psychosocial Adjustment

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood is a watershed period in development that carries risk for poor psychosocial adjustment. It also carries potential for positive transitions into the caregiving roles and responsibilities of adult life. Research to date has predominantly focused on adolescent predictors of problematic rather than positive transitions; yet predictors of the latter hold equal (if not greater) promise for informing health promoting interventions. The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to use Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to define patterns of psychosocial adjustment and maladjustment in young adulthood (21-years of age); (2) to examine the unique role of adolescent prosocial behaviour (e.g., volunteering and civic engagement) in promoting adjustment and reducing maladjustment in young adulthood; and, (3) to examine whether protective developmental relationships are maintained after adjustment for other covariates including socio-economic background factors and personality characteristics. Data were drawn from the Victorian cohort of the International Youth Development Study (IYDS; N = 2407), a representative sample of students in Victoria, Australia. Students were assessed in Grade 9 (Mean age = 15-years) and followed up at age 21-years. LPA identified three psychosocial adjustment classes at age 21 defined as: (1) Adjusted (24.8 %); (2) Normative (63.9 %); and, (3) Maladjusted (11.3 %). Adolescent volunteering, belief in a moral order, family opportunities for prosocial behaviour, and commitment to school were associated with enhanced adjustment and reduced maladjustment in young adulthood. Findings highlight the potential benefit of interventions designed to enhance adolescent prosocial behaviours and care orientation in promoting healthy transitions into young adult life.     

Religiousness, spirituality, and psychosocial functioning in late adulthood: findings from a longitudinal study

This study used longitudinal data to examine the relations among religiousness, spirituality, and 3 key domains of psychosocial functioning in late adulthood: (a) sources of well-being, (b) involvement in tasks of everyday life, and (c) generativity and wisdom. Religiousness and spirituality were operationalized as distinct but overlapping dimensions of individual difference. In late adulthood, religiousness was positively related to well-being from positive relations with others, involvement in social and community life tasks, and generativity. Spirituality was positively related to well-being from personal growth, involvement in creative and knowledge-building life tasks, and wisdom. Neither religiousness nor spirituality was associated with narcissism. The relations between religiousness, spirituality, and outcomes in late adulthood were also observed using religiousness scored in early and spirituality scored in late middle adulthood. All analyses were controlled for gender, cohort, social class, and the overlap between religiousness and spirituality.