A preview of this full-text is provided by American Psychological Association.
Content available from Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
Personality
and
Patterns
of
Adherence
and
Nonadherence
to the
Social Clock
Ravenna
Kelson,
Valory
Mitchell,
and
Geraldine
Moane
Institute
of
Personality
Assessment
and
Research
University
of
California,
Berkeley
The
concept
of
social
clock
project
structures
a
proposed
framework
for
studies
of
lifespan
development.
This
framework
identifies
personally
and
culturally
salient
need-press
configurations
through
time,
puts
cohort
variability
in
perspective,
and
locates
trouble
spots
for
prevention
and
intervention
programs.
We
illustrate
its
use
with
findings
from
a
longitudinal
study
of the
early
and
middle
adulthood
of
132
women
who
graduated
from
college
in
1958
and
1960,
after
a
period
of
marked
stability
and
before
a
period
of
social
change.
Marriage
and
vocational
outlook
in
college,
California
Psychological
Inventory
scores,
and the
timing
of
subsequent
life
events
are
major
sets
of
variables.
We
consider
questions
such
as
these:
What
personality
qualities
are
antecedent
to
adherence,
late
adherence,
and
nonadherence
to the
feminine
social
clock
(FSQ?
What
is
involved
in
departing
from
the FSC
through
divorce?
Is
change
in
personality
related
to any
particular
phases
of the
FSC,
such
as
motherhood?
Answers
to
these
and
other
questions
show
robust
relevance
of
personality
trait
measures.
Some
implications
for
personality
theory
are
illustrated.
Studies
of
personality development
in
adulthood
have been criticized
for
ignoring
both conditions
in
the
social world
and the
impact
of
these conditions
on
particular
co-
horts (Nesselroade
&
Baltes,
1974; Rossi,
1980). Improved methodological designs
(Runyan*
1978;
Schaie,
1965)
and
broader
theoretical
orientations
(Brim
&
Kagan,
1980;
Gergen,
1977;
Riegel,
1976) have been
ad-
vanced.
The
changing relations between adults
and
their environments over time
are so
varied
and
complex, however, that
the
research task
is formidable
(Clausen, 1972).
One
strategy
for
overcoming
the
split
be-
tween
personality
and
social concerns
in de-
velopmental studies
is to
focus
research
on
concepts
that
integrate
the
personal
and
social
processes through time.
In
this
article
we ex-
plore
how the
study
of
lives
may be
organized
in
terms
of
the
concept
of
adherence
and
non-
adherence
to
social clock patterns.
The
existence
of
shared
judgments
about
the
appropriateness
of
behavior
at
different
Requests
for
reprints
should
be
sent
to
Ravenna
Helson,'
Institute
of
Personality
Assessment
and
Research,
Uni-
versity
of
California,
Berkeley,
California
94720.
ages
was
demonstrated
by
Neugarten, Moore,
and
Lowe
(1965).
In
this
and
later papers,
Neugarten (1968, 1979) suggested that
age
norms
or
"social clocks" influence behavior
in a
number
of
ways.
For
example,
life
events
that occur
at
their socially expected
times
are
said
to be
less
stressful
than those occurring
at
nonnormative times because they
are
better
integrated
into
the
social system. There
is
some
evidence
for
this idea
(Furstenberg,
1976;
D. P.
Hogan, 1978), though there
may be
sat-
isfactions
as
well
as
problems
from
nonnor-
mative schedules (Daniels
&
Weingarten,
1982).
From
the
point
of
view
of
individual psy-
chology,
an
important idea
is
that being
"on
time"
or
"off
time"
is a
compelling basis
for
self-assessment. "Men
and
women compare
themselves with their friends, siblings,
work
colleagues,
or
parents
in
deciding whether they
have
made good,
but it is
always
with
a
time
line
in
mind," said Neugarten
(1979,
p.
887).
People
ask
themselves, "How
am I
doing
for
my
age?"
To
some,
the
idea
of
the
social clock
implies
that
life
outcomes
are
determined
by
the
"opening
and
closing
of
doors triggered
by the
Journal
of
Personality
and
Social
Psychology,
1984,
Vol.
46. No. 5,
1079-1096
Copyright
1984
by the
American Psychological Association, Inc.
1079
