ABSTRACT
David Magnusson has articulated the key elements of a person approach to personality and developmental psychology, thereby pointing the way toward future bridges between the two fields (Magnusson, 1990, 1996; Magnusson & Stattin, 1998; Magnusson & Törestad, 1993; Stattin & Magnusson, 1996). The key elements of such an approach are a holistic, interactionist view that emphasizes a dynamic systems perspective, patterns of relationships among variables or parts of the system, and nonlinear as well as linear relationships. The person is viewed as an active, purposeful agent interacting with an environment that includes externally created and self-created affordances.
