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Paths to Successful Development Paths to Successful Development
Personality in the Life Course
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7 - Studying processes: some methodological considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

By
Lars R. Bergman
Edited by
Lea Pulkkinen  and
Avshalom Caspi
Lea Pulkkinen
Affiliation:
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Avshalom Caspi
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
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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.

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Paths to Successful Development
Personality in the Life Course
 , pp. 177 - 200
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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