Avshalom Caspi’s research while affiliated with Harvard University and other places

Behavior patterns can be sustained across the life course by two kinds of person-environment interaction. Cumulative continuity arises when an individual's interactional style channels him or her into environments that themselves reinforce that style, thereby sustaining the behavior pattern across the life course through the progressive accumulation of its own consequences. Interactional continuity arises when an individual's style evokes reciprocal, sustaining responses from others in ongoing social interaction, thereby reinstating the behavior pattern across the individual's life course whenever the relevant interactive situation is replicated. Using archival data from the Berkeley Guidance Study (Macfarlane, Allen, & Honzik, 1954), we present evidence for the operation of these two continuity-promoting processes by identifying individuals who were ill-tempered, shy, or dependent in late childhood and then tracing the continuities and consequences of these interactional styles across the subsequent 30 years of their lives in the domains of work and family. The importance of the sociocultural context in mediating these continuities and consequences is stressed.

Social changes, including women's entry into the labour force and higher rates of divorce and remarriage, dramatically altered family life and raised complex questions about how individuals develop in the ever changing contexts of family, community and society. The goal of this 1989 volume is to enhance our understanding of human development in an evolving social context. Featuring contributions by eminent scholars in developmental, clinical and personality psychology, behavioural genetics and sociology, Persons in Context: Developmental Processes presents advances in theory and research on two central topics: how environments influence individuals in the course of development and how individuals select and shape the very environments that influence their development. The volume assembles a theoretically convergent body of research on how individuals and environments are linked in the course of development, including studies of genetics - environment relations, social interns, social interchanges in family systems, and linkages between the family and other major settings, such as peer groups, communities, and the larger social structure.

What are the life-course sequelae of childhood shyness? Using archival data from the Berkeley Guidance Study (Macfarlane, Allen, & Honzik, 1954), we identified individuals who were shy and reserved in late childhood and traced the continuities and consequences of this behavioral style across the subsequent 30 years of their lives. Shy boys were more likely than their peers to delay entry into marriage, parenthood, and stable careers; to attain less occupational achievement and stability; and—when late in establishing stable careers—to experience marital instability. Shy girls were more likely than their peers to follow a conventional pattern of marriage, childbearing, and homemaking. Results are compared with those from our parallel study of childhood ill-temperedness (Caspi, Elder, & Bem, 1987). Despite differences between shyness ("moving away from the world") and ill-temperedness ("moving against the world"), both persist across the life course through the progressive accumulation of their own consequences (cumulative continuity) and by their tendency to evoke maintaining responses from others during reciprocal social interaction (interactional continuity). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

What are the life-course sequelae of childhood shyness? Using archival data from the Berkeley Guidance Study (Macfarlane, Allen, & Honzik, 1954), we identified individuals who were shy and reserved in late childhood and traced the continuities and consequences of this behavioral style across the subsequent 30 years of their lives. Shy boys were more likely than their peers to delay entry into marriage, parenthood, and stable careers; to attain less occupational achievement and stability; and-when late in establishing stable careers-to experience marital instability. Shy girls were more likely than their peers to follow a conventional pattern of marriage, childbearing, and homemaking. Results are compared with those from our parallel study of childhood ill-temperedness (Caspi, Elder, & Bem, 1987). Despite differences between shyness ("moving away from the world") and ill-temperedness ("moving against the world"), both persist across the life course through the progressive accumulation of their own consequences (cumulative continuity) and by their tendency to evoke maintaining responses from others during reciprocal social interaction (interactional continuity).

Do ill-tempered children become ill-tempered adults? What are the life-course consequences of such an explosive interactional style? What processes can account for the persistence of maladaptive behavior across time and circumstance? To answer these questions, this study used data from the Berkeley Guidance Study (Macfarlane, Allen, & Honzik, 1954) to identify children with a pattern of temper tantrums in late childhood (ages 8–10) and to trace the continuities and consequences of this behavioral style across the subsequent 30 years of their lives. Life-course continuities in this behavioral style were found for both sexes. Men with histories of childhood tantrums experienced downward occupational mobility, erratic work lives, and were likely to divorce. Women with such histories married men with lower occupational status, were likely to divorce, and became ill-tempered mothers. It is proposed that maladaptive behaviors are sustained through the progressive accumulation of their own consequences (cumulative continuity) and by evoking maintaining responses from others during reciprocal social interaction (interactional continuity). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

A life course perspective on aging assumes that adaptation is governed by factors beyond the immediate situation. Using longitudinal data on 79 women from the 1900 generation of the Berkeley Guidance Study, we examined how social and psychological factors interact over time in the course of successful aging, as expressed by life satisfaction. The consequences of adaptive resources in early adulthood vary in relation to social class. Intellectual skills in 1930 indirectly predict life satisfaction in old age for women from the working class, whereas emotional health is more influential in the life satisfaction of women with higher class origins. Social activity in old age makes a difference only in the lives of women from the working class. Finally, adaptation to old age is related to women's experiences with past stressful events. Middle-class women in 1930 showed gains attributable to Depression hardship (1930s), whereas the life satisfaction of women from the working class was diminished by such hardships. Several mechanisms are discussed that may link widely separated problem situations and life events across the life course. The analysis provides empirical support for the proposition that the influence of social change on life trajectories is contingent on what individuals bring to change situations.

The impact of drastic income loss on children is mediated by a number of family adaptations, including the shift toward more labor-intensive households and altered relationships. Using newly developed codes on parenting behavior during the Great Depression, this study investigates the role of parental behavior (rejecting, nonsupportive) in linking economic hardship to children's lives in the Oakland Growth Study. The results extend beyond those reported in Children of the Great Depression by showing that economic hardship adversely influenced the psychosocial well-being of girls, but not boys, by increasing the rejecting behavior of fathers. The parenting behavior of mothers did not vary significantly by income loss. In addition, the rejecting influence of hard-pressed fathers was more pronounced in relation to less attractive daughters, as judged by physical features. Attractive daughters were not likely to be maltreated by their fathers, no matter how severe the economic pressure. These outcomes on family mediation and conditional effects underscore the importance of viewing economic decline in relation to both the child's characteristics and parenting behavior. An understanding of the effects of economic decline in children's lives requires knowledge of parent and child behavior within the family and life course.