Experience-induced affective development in children and adults

The purpose of this short-term longitudinal study was to test a theory of experience-induced affective development which links individuals' subjective experience with their external environmental changes. It investigated the role of transitional experiences in producing substantial affective changes in both children and adults.

Data were collected from individuals who were about to experience a life change, who had very recently experienced a life change, or who had experienced a life change fairly recently and had made some adaptation to it. The original sample consisted of 64 young children (kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades), 342 school children (5th through 10th grades), 138 college students, 36 participants who were engaged to be married, 60 newly married participants, 40 expectant parents, and 41 new parents. These participants were chosen to represent people in major life transitions around school, work, marriage, and parenthood. There was a high response rate in the follow-up. The two waves of data collection were conducted over three years. The new parents sample was followed up two more times by another researcher (see Chester, A640).

Participants were administered four Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) cues, a basic facts questionnaires, an interview, and other questionnaires including the Feffer Role-taking Task, the Kelly Role Repertory Grid, Who Am I?, and several personality inventories.

The Murray Center holds paper and computer-accessible data from both data collections. The following coding reflects all the different cohorts, accounting for several (seemingly contradictory) codes in the same field.