ABSTRACT
How does personality shape the life course? In particular, why do maladaptive behaviors persist? What are the processes that sustain them across time, in new situations, and in diverse relationships? These are ancient and enduring questions and we believe that a purely psychological framework cannot address them adequately. A more satisfactory view calls for a joint psychological and sociological framework, a framework that not only takes account of the person but also of the person's engagement in society. In this chapter we provide details of such a framework and document its usefulness for understanding the sources of continuity of problem behavior. Two empirical demonstrations are reported. Using the Berkeley Guidance Study, we identified a group of undercontrolled, explosive children and a group of withdrawn, inhibited children (ages 8–10). We then traced their life-course trajectories across 30 years and multiple situations, seeking both the recurring expressions of these behavioral styles and their cumulative consequences in the adult roles of work, marriage, and parenting. Explosive behavior was recreated in new roles and settings, especially in relation to subordination – in education, military, and work settings – and in situations that required negotiating interpersonal conflicts, in marriage and parenting. Withdrawn behavior was recreated in new situations that required initiating action, in mate selection and vocational decision-making. Maladaptiave behaviors appear to be sustained across the life course through the progressive accumulation of their own consequences (cumulative continuity) and by evoking maintaining responses from others in reciprocal social interactions (interactional continuity).
