The Development of the Person

The definitive work on a groundbreaking study, this essential volume provides a coherent picture of the complexity of development from birth to adulthood. Explicated are both the methodology of the Minnesota study and its far-reaching contributions to understanding how we become who we are. The book marshals a vast body of data on the ways in which individuals' strengths and vulnerabilities are shaped by myriad influences, including early experiences, family and peer relationships throughout childhood and adolescence, variations in child characteristics and abilities, and socioeconomic conditions. Implications for clinical intervention and prevention are also addressed. Rigorously documented and clearly presented, the study's findings elucidate the twists and turns of individual pathways, illustrating as never before the ongoing interplay between developing children and their environments.

L. Alan Sroufe, PhD; Byron Egeland, PhD; Elizabeth Carlson, PhD; and W. Andrew Collins, PhD, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

"Four stars for this remarkable book!" - Eleanor E. Maccoby, Stanford University, California, USA "A marvelously written account of an impressively in-depth exploration of the experiences and circumstances that build persons over time...There are not many 30-year studies out there, but beyond simply being rare, this study is rich in theory and inspiring to anyone who has ever wondered what makes a person who he/she is." - Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry "This is a comprehensive, well-conceived and constructed longitudinal developmental study that makes a significant contribution to the understanding of development and its problems. It will be most welcome not only to students of child development, but to all practitioners of psychological disciplines dealing with development and its outcomes." - Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic "If you want to be informed on the most up to date, profound thinking about development, this is the one book that should be read...Woven throughout the book is a presentati