Conceptual issues in studying continuity and discontinuity in personality development across life.
In this article, we argue that the continuity-discontinuity of personality development is not just an empirical issue, but is also a metatheoretical and theoretical issue. Stances taken in regard to one of three metatheories (or models)--the organismic, the mechanistic, and the developmental contextual--determine theoretical ideas about (a) the units of analysis thought to be relevant to personality development; (b) the processes believed to govern these units; and (c) whether changes in these units are continuous or discontinuous. Theories associated with the models also differ in regard to whether they describe and/or explain intra-individual personality changes as quantitatively or qualitatively continuous or discontinuous. Developmental contextual theories seek to identify the organismic and contextual conditions under which any instance of continuity-discontinuity occurs. These conditions involve both nomothetic and idiographic processes. Organism-context relations must be studied longitudinally in order to understand how these processes function across life.
Pennsylvania State University.
R M
RM
Lerner
J G
JG
Tubman
D005075:Biological Evolution; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010553:Personality Development; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012737:Sex Factors; D012917:Social Adjustment