Record Details

The Study of Adult Development, 1960-1985

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title The Study of Adult Development, 1960-1985
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/DYK8DS
 
Creator Heath, Douglas H.
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine how a sample of men adapt to life over time. The researcher examined the meaning of competence and psychological maturity of college men, their course and causes through the adult years, and the difference between males and females through their maturation. Through the middle years, this study hoped to shed light on the meaning of adult competence, successful adaptation, and happiness, and looked at participants' personality correlates and familial and adolescent precursors. As the study progressed, some data were collected from the wives of study participants.


The study began in the early 1960s at a small all-male liberal arts college in the northeast U.S. All students upon matriculating were given a battery of tests. Students judged most and least effective in functioning by 18 teachers, students, counselors and coaches were included in the study along with a random selection of students of intermediate levels of effective functioning.

Data were collected over five separate time periods spanning thirty years of the lives of participants. 80 men comprised the initial Time 1 sample for this study. All of the initial participants were white males from a socioeconomically privileged group. 41 wives were included at Time 4. The wives were more diverse in terms of age, class and race than their husbands.


The Murray Archive holds additional analogue materials for this study (paper data for all five waves of this study, including psychological tests, interview transcripts, and notes, as well as audiotapes for Wave 4 interviews). If you would like to access this material, please apply to use the data.

Audio Data Availability Note: This study contains audio data that have been digitized. There are 21 audio files available.
 
Subject Social Sciences
 
Type longitudinal