European Network on Longitudinal Studies on Individual Development – serie

Longitudinal research is an essential element in the investigation of human development over time, with considerable advantages over more widely used cross-sectional research designs. This book examines the scope for longitudinal studies in a range of developmental fields, emphasizing the advantages of this approach for the investigation of causal mechanisms and processes and the dynamics of development over the lifespan. It also discusses methodological issues and some of the practical and ethical problems that longitudinal research may present. The distinguished contributors review normal and disordered development in the emotional, cognitive and social domains, including valuable discussions of gene-environment interactions, the maturation of the human brain, and issues relating to ageing.

This collection brings together work in an important area that has become the focus of major research in European developmental psychology: the longitudinal study of the interaction of cognition and emotion in individual development. Leading international researchers in developmental psychology have prepared chapters that examine transition mechanisms in areas including cognitive and memory development, language development, social and emotional development, and motor development in children. The volume is an outgrowth of a workshop on longitudinal research in individual development, sponsored by the European Science Foundation. It reflects the many conceptual and methodological advances that have taken place in the application of longitudinal strategies to research in developmental psychology, and demonstrates the need for the longitudinal perspective in future research.

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.

Motor development is an integral part of the developmental process. Understanding the organization of the sensory-motor system and its adaptations in response to environmental factors is a vital part of understanding individual development as a whole. This volume describes and discusses human motor development using longitudinal study methods, and from an interdisciplinary perspective. Researchers from a variety of different backgrounds and disciplines provide a broad-ranging analysis of human motor development, from both the practical and theoretical standpoint, in a book which will be of great interest to paediatricians, psychologists, developmental biologists, developmental psychiatrists and neurologists as well as to research scientists in these fields.

Longitudinal research is an essential element in the investigation of human development over time, with considerable advantages over more widely used cross-sectional research designs. This book examines the scope for longitudinal studies in a range of developmental fields, emphasizing the advantages of this approach for the investigation of causal mechanisms and processes and the dynamics of development over the lifespan. It also discusses methodological issues and some of the practical and ethical problems that longitudinal research may present. The distinguished contributors review normal and disordered development in the emotional, cognitive and social domains, including valuable discussions of gene-environment interactions, the maturation of the human brain, and issues relating to ageing.

More and more people live into old age. This demographic revolution underscores the fact that old age is the last uncharted and unattended phase of the life cycle. We know that old age is the last uncharted and unattended phase of the life cycle. We know very little about the strengths and weaknesses of old age or how to achieve a good balance between gains and losses, a meaningful conclusion to life. The fourth volume in a series sponsored by the European Science Foundation Network on Longitudinal Studies on Individual Development, Successful Aging presents in its first section general overviews on successful aging from psychological, sociological, and medical perspectives. The volume's second part focuses on selected areas of human functioning, such as intelligence, memory, athletics, life satisfaction, personal control, coping with illness and loss, widowhood, and mental health. The authors of the various chapters share in the view that aging is not identical with fate, but that individuals play a major role in designing their own process of aging.