This article had four goals. First, the authors identified a set of general challenges and questions that a life-span theory of development should address. Second, they presented a comprehensive account of their Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development. They integrated the model of optimization in primary and secondary control and the…

The relations of children's (n=214 at Time 1; M age=6 years at Time 1) dispositional sympathy to adult-reported and behavioral measures of effortful control (EC) and impulsivity were examined in a longitudinal study including five assessments, each two years apart. Especially for boys, relatively high levels of EC and growth in EC were related to…

This digest describes the overall pattern of the results of research on television violence and behavior. Several variables in the relationship between television violence and aggression related to characteristics of the viewers and to the portrayal of violence are identified. Viewer characteristics included: age, amount of television watched,…

Discussion of the functional relationship between self-injurious behavior (SIB) and self-restraint in people with severe disabilities considers SIB and self-restraint as members of the same functional response class, SIB and self-restraint as functionally independent responses, access to self-restraint as positive reinforcement of SIB, termination…

Investigated time conceptualizations and delay of gratification capacities of 64 6- to 10-year-olds identified as impulsive or reflective according to performance on Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test. They were administered a maintenance of delay of gratification task, a time concept questionnaire, and several measures of temporal perspective…