ABSTRACT
Now, more than 25 years after the onset of the Munich Longitudinal Study (the LOGIC study) and several years after the last wave of data collection, the time is appropriate to reect on what we did and what we are learning from this comprehensive enterprise. Why did we do all this? Were the initial goals of such a long-term project on human development and its implementation based on careful planning? Did we know from the very beginning what the ultimate focus and scope of the study would be? Yes and no. When Franz Weinert began his new job as a founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in 1982, he was already thinking about a unique longitudinal study covering the domains of cognitive and social-personality development with a strong focus on the genesis of individual differences, and with links to school achievement. Although he was never explicit about his staff recruitment strategy, his selection of (then) young collaborators created a research unit representing expertise from different developmental areas.
