The way school principals make sense of the context of their work shapes their actions. As in all adults, principals' sense-making capability is a function of the ego and can change over time. Adult ego development theory describes distinct, qualitatively different stages of sense-making ability. The research reported here assessed the adult ego…

The cognitive perceptions that enable gifted children to process academic information in superior ways also qualitatively impact the psychosocial dimensions of their lives. Overexcitabilities represent common super-sensitive areas in gifted children. However, giftedness does not end with adulthood and neither do the complex processes of…

Polli Soholt points to normalization in the first plane as leading to the successful realization of the human personality, which is the basis of social development. Children who have cultivated concentration and purposeful work at an early age develop the virtues to become world citizens. Normalization can be assisted by certain practices: 1)…

The authors investigated normative beliefs about personality development. Young, middle-aged, and older adults indicated the age-relevance of 835 French adjectives by specifying person characteristics as typical for any age decade from 0 to 99 years. With this paradigm, the authors determined age-relevance (How typical is a characteristic for a…

It has been argued that the predominant focus of midlife personality development is generativity; other research has found that social roles influence both its onset and its expression. In this article, we examine women's midlife personality development and its relationship to career and family commitments. Results for a sample of 90 women…

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of social capital assessed in early adulthood in linking self-control in childhood with psychological and social functioning in middle age. Data collected at ages 8, 27, and 42 years were based on the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (159 females, 177 males).…

Much prior groundbreaking research has been done in recent years highlighting the qualities, quantities and means children have to enter transpersonal states of awareness. As important as this precedent research has been, in many ways it has yet to fully appreciate the gravity of childhood transpersonal experiences in terms of the impact on…

As role models, mentors serve as moral exemplars to their proteges. Yet, since the mentoring literature gives scant attention to the mentor's role in protege moral education, mentors are largely unwitting participants in this process. Grounded in research from moral psychology and philosophy, this article provides guidance to mentors who want to…

This paper examines the concept of identity from philosophical, personal, and territorial perspectives. In the first section an historical perspective on identity is explored through the writings of Plato, Dupius, Josephus, and Thut. Twentieth century models of identity are related to the concepts of these writers of ancient Greece. In the second…

Adult male clients often have little boys contained within their personality structures. This article explores the little boy as a part of an adult male and his qualities. The role of the little boy in counseling and ways in which the counselor might deal with him are examined. (Author)

Provides an overview of recent behavior-genetic studies of personality that document (1) the demonstration of genetic bases for stability of certain personality dimensions, (2) evidence suggesting the most influential environmental sources of variation are those not jointly experienced by family members, and (3) continuing controversy regarding…

In a response to comments by P. T. Costa, Jr., and R. R. McCrae on the current authors' original article, the authors show that Costa and McCrae's writings on personality suggest a belief in immutability of personality traits. The authors agree with Costa and McCrae that new personality trait models that provide an accurate lower order structure…

Examined psychological maturity based on personal strivings in 108 adults ages 17 to 82 years. Results supported hypotheses that older people would list more strivings concerning generativity and ego integrity and fewer strivings concerning identity and intimacy, and that maturity and age would be positively associated with subjective well-being.…

Adult Black identity change that took place within the context of the recent Black sociopolitical movement is the focus of this literature review. (Author/WI)