Lars R. Bergman - Böcker

This book provides an overview of the central issues of data quality in longitudinal research, with a focus on data relevant for studying individual development. Topics covered include reliability, validity, sampling, aggregation, and the correspondence between theory and method; more specific, practical issues in longitudinal research, such as the drop-out problem and issues of confidentiality are also addressed. The volume is the result of an interdisciplinary endeavour by leading European scientists to discuss appropriate ways of handling various types of longitudinal data, including psychiatric data, alcohol data, and criminal data.

This volume focuses on methods of data treatment, emphasising the importance of careful matching of methodology to the substantive problem under consideration. It deals particularly with concepts of stability and change which are central to personality and developmental research. Contributions to this volume explore the methodology and scope of life span studies in a varity of contexts, including intellectual and cognitive development, transitions such as that from childhood to early adult life, social mobility, behavioural genetics, and psychological disorder, particularly depression. A valuable reference for a wide range of interests in developmental psychology, social and behavioural science, psychiatry, epidemiology and statistics.

An international cast of the top names in developmental research explore how researchers can use group data to understand individual patterns and pathways over time. Since the dominant statistical models and sampling methods do not accurately reflect and capture the way in which individuals change, but rather statistically treat the individual as an unchanging constant (e.g., as if a 2-year-oldÆs personality is identical to a 30-year-oldÆs). After an introduction to this methodological dilemma, the book shows how empirical procedures can be employed in a stepwise progression to permit a focus on individual children. The next chapter explains how individuals versus variables are not stable over time and how to adjust analysis to reflect this. This is followed by a discussion that outlines some of the key technical details and illustrates the choices that confront researchers in the application of these procedures to longitudinal data sets. Subsequent chapters cover such issues as the value of methodological focus on extreme groups, such as fearful and very exuberant children; ways to analyze personality changes over time, how to combine the strengths of variable-oriented and categorical procedures to achieve a focus on individuals; how to correlate retrospective reports with actual events, and how developmental methods can be brought into line with the study of individual pathways. Each chapter is followed by a commentary and discussion by Marian Radke Yarrow. Methods and Models for Studying the Individual offers readers a guide for evaluating the methodological merits of the different strategies for studying individuals.

During the last decade there has been increased awareness of the limitations of standard approaches to the study of development. When the focus is on variables and relationships, the individual is easily lost. This book describes an alternative, person-oriented approach in which the focus is on the individual as a functioning whole. The authors take as their theoretical starting points the holistic-interactionistic research paradigm expounded by David Magnusson and others, and the new developmental science in which connections and interactions between different systems (biological, psychological, social, etc.) are stressed. They present a quantitative methodology for preserving--to the maximum extent possible--the individual as a functioning whole that is largely based on work carried out in the Stockholm Laboratory for Developmental Science over the past 20 years. The book constitutes a complete introductory guide to the person-oriented approach. The authors lay out the underlying theory, a number of basic methods, the necessary computer programs, and an extensive empirical example. (The computer programs have been collected into a statistical package, SLEIPNER, that is freely accessible on the Internet. The empirical example deals with boys' school adjustment from a pattern perspective and covers both positive and negative adaptation.) Studying Individual Development in an Interindividual Context: A Person-Oriented Approach will be crucial reading for all researchers who seek to understand the complexities of human development and for their advanced students.

During the last decade there has been increased awareness of the limitations of standard approaches to the study of development. When the focus is on variables and relationships, the individual is easily lost. This book describes an alternative, person-oriented approach in which the focus is on the individual as a functioning whole. The authors take as their theoretical starting points the holistic-interactionistic research paradigm expounded by David Magnusson and others, and the new developmental science in which connections and interactions between different systems (biological, psychological, social, etc.) are stressed. They present a quantitative methodology for preserving--to the maximum extent possible--the individual as a functioning whole that is largely based on work carried out in the Stockholm Laboratory for Developmental Science over the past 20 years. The book constitutes a complete introductory guide to the person-oriented approach. The authors lay out the underlying theory, a number of basic methods, the necessary computer programs, and an extensive empirical example. (The computer programs have been collected into a statistical package, SLEIPNER, that is freely accessible on the Internet. The empirical example deals with boys' school adjustment from a pattern perspective and covers both positive and negative adaptation.) Studying Individual Development in an Interindividual Context: A Person-Oriented Approach will be crucial reading for all researchers who seek to understand the complexities of human development and for their advanced students.

This book is the outcome of a symposium where leading researchers, mainly in developmental psychology, came together to discuss the implications of the emerging developmental science and the holistic approach. In doing this, the authors wanted to honor a distinguished colleague, David Magnusson, and his career-long contributions to this field. The purpose of the book is to discuss the profound implications for developmental science of the holistic paradigm, especially with regard to the individual development within psychology. Against the background of their own empirical, theoretical, or methodological research, the authors have tried to identify what is needed for the developmental theory and methods within this paradigm and discuss possibilities and limitations in relation to conventional approaches.