Life-span Developmental Psychology

Life-Span Developmental Psychology: Historical and Generational Effects provides theoretical and methodological frameworks and examples in history-graded influences on life-span development. The book is a compilation of select research papers by sociologists and psychologists in the study of the biological and environmental determinants of development. The topics discussed in the text include the historical and cohort effects; the aims, methods, and problems of research on historical constancy and change; the relationships between history-graded events and normative age-graded (ontogenetic) events; and the investigation of the developing individual in a changing world. Empirical samples of history-graded influence studies of various age cohorts from the United States and other countries are presented as well. Psychologists and sociologists will find the book very insightful.

ContributorsPrefaceAcknowledgments1. Historical Time and Cohort Effects Introduction Historical Time and Cohort Effects in Psychological Data The Concepts of Cohort and Period Revisited How Do We Measure Historical Time? Implications for the Estimation of Age, Cohort, and Period Effects Summary and Conclusions References2. Dimensions of Historical Constancy and Change Introduction Dimensions of Life Events The New Madrid Earthquake Methods of Study Examples Conclusions References3. The Individual as Consumer and Producer of Historical Change Introduction A Framework for Discussion The Observer Outside the Observed System The Observer Is Part of the System The Observed Individual's Reflections on History Evaluating Our Discipline against the System of Relationships Conclusion References4. Simulation of Cultural Change by Cross-Cultural Research: Some Metamethodological Considerations Introduction Cross-Cultural Simulation of Sociocultural Change within Life-Span Developmental Psychology Conclusion References5. Culture, Language, and Mature Rationality Introduction The Relativization of Cognitive Maturity Philosophy and the Crisis of the Personal The Reintegration of Individuality in Maturity Conclusions References6. Social Change, World Views, and Cohort Succession: The United States in the 1980s Introduction Generational Discontinuities in Tunisia The Transformations of Industrialism A New Sense of Limits Distrust of Institutional Leadership Skepticism about Technology Generational Shifts in World Views The Rise of Environmentalism References7. Love, War, and the Life Cycle of the Family Introduction The Central Europeans The Turks The Persians The North Africans The Moslem Arabs The Lessons of History References8. Hardship in Lives: Depression Influences from the 1930s to Old Age in Postwar America Introduction Linking Economic Events and Health Depression Adversity in the Later Years Hard Times and Health in the 1930s Overview References9. Fatherhood: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Introduction Theoretical Assumptions In Search of a Baseline A Portrait of Traditional Families Unplanned and Planned Change: Effects on Fathering Unplanned Changes in Fathering Planned Change Cultural Support Systems for Fathers and Families Effects of Changes in Fathering on Children and Parents Conclusions and Future Trends References10. Grandparenthood in Transition Introduction Position of the Aged in Traditional Societies Changing Family Structure Grandparenthood Background Methodology Findings and Results Discussion and Conclusions ReferencesAuthor IndexSubject Index