Longitudinal research (or observing the same subject across time) in human development requires more careful planning than do cross-sectional studies and is demanding theoretically and organizationally. This volume focuses on methods of data treatment in longitudinal research emphasizing the importance of careful matching of methodology to the substantive problem under consideration. It deals particularly with concepts of stability and change that are central to personality and developmental research. Contributors to this volume explore the methodology and scope of life span studies in a...

Vom Ministerium fiir Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen ging die Anregung aus, eine Gruppe von Wissenschaftlern unterschiedlicher Fachrichtungen zu sammenzubringen, urn von ihnen Fragen der Alternsforschung untersuchen zu lassen. Es blieb aber nicht nur bei der Idee. Auf Einladung des Ministeriums hin fanden sich Erziehungswissen schaftler, Psychologen und Soziologen zusammen, deren Forschungsprojekte auf die Dauer von zwei Jahren gef6rdert worden sind. Der hier nun vorgelegte Band enthillt die Darstellungen der Ergebnisse aus fiinf der so gef6rderten Projekte. An der...

Most contributions to this volume originated as papers given at an inter- national conference on Integrative Perspectives on Youth Development held in Berlin (West) in May, 1983. This conference was part of a 6-year longi- tudinal research program on the causes of substance use among adolescents in Berlin, which is now in its fourth year. The conference title deliberately did not refer to substance use. However, its relevance to an explanation of drug-related problem behavior was made evident to everyone invited to the conference. The search for integrative perspectives in youth development...