Abstract
This research examined how a contextual approach to personality assessment can reveal change processes that are obscured by
measures of overall behavior frequencies. Using field observations of 336 children from three summers at a program for at-risk
youth, we illustrate how children’s social experiences change over time, how their reactions to these experiences change,
and how both processes contribute to changes in the overall frequencies of their prosocial, aggressive, and withdrawn behavior.
Children showing opposite patterns of change in their environments and their reactions to them were nevertheless similar in
their overall amount of change. The results clarify how changes in reactions and social experiences can be disentangled and
reintegrated in order to deepen our understanding of personality change processes. Implications for change assessments that
rely on overall behavior summaries are highlighted for program, individual, and intra-individual levels of analysis.
measures of overall behavior frequencies. Using field observations of 336 children from three summers at a program for at-risk
youth, we illustrate how children’s social experiences change over time, how their reactions to these experiences change,
and how both processes contribute to changes in the overall frequencies of their prosocial, aggressive, and withdrawn behavior.
Children showing opposite patterns of change in their environments and their reactions to them were nevertheless similar in
their overall amount of change. The results clarify how changes in reactions and social experiences can be disentangled and
reintegrated in order to deepen our understanding of personality change processes. Implications for change assessments that
rely on overall behavior summaries are highlighted for program, individual, and intra-individual levels of analysis.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-13
- DOI 10.1007/s10862-011-9233-x
- Authors
- Jack C. Wright, Walter S. Hunter Laboratory of Psychology, Brown University, 89 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02912, USA
- Audrey L. Zakriski, Department of Psychology, Connecticut College, 270 Mohegan Avenue, New London, CT 06320, USA
- Anselma G. Hartley, Walter S. Hunter Laboratory of Psychology, Brown University, 89 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02912, USA
- Harry W. Parad, Wediko Children’s Services, 72-74 East Dedham St., Boston, MA 02118, USA
- Journal Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment
- Online ISSN 1573-3505
- Print ISSN 0882-2689