Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Personality and paths to successful development: an overview
- Part I Temperament and emotion regulation
- Part II Formation of social relationships
- Part III Continuity in individual life paths
- 5 Personality types in childhood and adolescence: main effects and person-relationship transactions
- 6 The influence of early behavior patterns on later life
- 7 Studying processes: some methodological considerations
- Part IV Environmental contributions to personality development
- Part V Life transitions
- Part VI Personal goals and well-being
- Index
- References
7 - Studying processes: some methodological considerations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Personality and paths to successful development: an overview
- Part I Temperament and emotion regulation
- Part II Formation of social relationships
- Part III Continuity in individual life paths
- 5 Personality types in childhood and adolescence: main effects and person-relationship transactions
- 6 The influence of early behavior patterns on later life
- 7 Studying processes: some methodological considerations
- Part IV Environmental contributions to personality development
- Part V Life transitions
- Part VI Personal goals and well-being
- Index
- References
Summary
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss different approaches for studying processes. Since methods are – or at least should be – intimately related to the theory guiding the research it is natural to start from a meta theoretical perspective. A powerful general theoretical framework for studying personality in a life-course perspective is provided by the holistic-interactionistic research paradigm as incorporated in the new developmental science. Therefore, the chapter starts with a brief introduction of this framework and how it leads to an interest in studying processes. A very thought-provoking and potentially attractive approach to studying processes is given by emerging methods for studying nonlinear dynamical systems (NOLIDS). Some general ideas in NOLIDS are indicated and a few examples given of key concepts that seem relevant in relation to the study of personality. Against this background, the emphasis in current research on what will here be called static statistical methods is questioned and a number of approaches are discussed which stay closer to the process characteristics of the phenomena under study.
The issues treated in this chapter, although methodological and apart from the substantive issues treated elsewhere in this book, may be useful to consider in conjunction with the rest of the book.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Paths to Successful DevelopmentPersonality in the Life Course, pp. 177 - 200Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002
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