Aging literature contains many references to the importance of both real and perceived personality factors to the aging process. The individuals over age 60 in this study were asked to indicate their past and present levels of role participation and present role involvement, and to respond to parts of a personality inventory. (MS)

Discusses decision problems relating to developmental goals. It is argued that developmental planning and intervention should be based on scientifically founded programmatic models of human development. (MS)

Drawing on a model of wisdom that includes components in three domains (personality, cognition, and conation) and across three levels (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal), highlights potential differences in the ways women and men attain and express wisdom; and examines interactive patterns across the components of wisdom. (BC)

Theory and research regarding moral motivation has focused for decades on the roles of moral reasoning and, to some extent, moral emotion. Recently, however, several models of morality have positioned identity as an additional important source of moral motivation. An individual has a moral identity to the extent that he or she has constructed his…

Paul B. Baltes and his colleagues, who are among the most prominent contemporary wisdom researchers, define wisdom as "expert knowledge in the domain fundamental pragmatics of life." By contrast, this article argues that the definition, operationalization, and measurement of wisdom should not be reduced to expertise and that the term wisdom should…

Compares ontogenetic models, which stress development through a series of stages; sociogenic models, which stress the influence of social context on adult behavior; and liberative models. Liberative models do not treat adult development as entirely dependent on biological or social determinism, and do stress individuals' conscious efforts at…

Discusses many factors involved in determining the complex nature of a child's knowledge base. Includes three kinds of considerations: 1) task-oriented criteria; 2) motivational elements; and 3) the relationship between personality and performance. (Author/CS)

Reviews Frans J. Van der Linden's "Adolescent Lifeworld: Theoretical and Empirical Orientations in Socialization Processes of Dutch Youth: A Selection of Social Ecological Studies." (BB)

This paper reviews research on physical attractiveness from a dialectical-interactional perspective and attempts to examine the relationship between outer appearance and inner psychological characteristics from a developmental perspective. (BD)

Assesses 180 college students at three ages (17-23, 37-43, and 61-80) to examine the relative availability of Piagetian formal reasoning concepts; the relationship of these formal reasoning performances to Horn and Cattell's psychometric theory of general fluid and crystallized intelligence; and developmental patterns among standardized…