Parental Descriptions of Child Personality : Developmental Antecedents of the Big Five?

by Kohnstamm, Gedolph A.; Halverson, Jr., Charles F.; Mervielde, Ivan; Havill, Valerie L.

• ISBN13: 9780805823011
• ISBN10: 0805823018
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-05-01
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

This book reports the first attempt in the child development literature to examine the structure of early personality based on parents' free-descriptions of their children. It is an important piece of research because of its cross-national focus on personality development. The authors present a data set that reveals considerable consistency in the parental descriptions of child personality in both western and nonwestern countries. This consistency supports the cultural universality of the "Big Five" personality factors. The authors' findings lay the foundation for an examination of how these major dimensions of childhood personality structure evolve into adult personality structure.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
1 Analyzing Parental Free Descriptions of Child Personality	1	(20)
Geldolph A. Kohnstamm
Charles F. Halverson, Jr.
Ivan Mervielde
Valerie L. Havill
2 Extraversion: Toward a Unifying Description From Infancy to Adulthood	21	(28)
Eric Elphick
Charles F. Halverson, Jr.
Magdalena Marzal-Wisniewska
3 Agreeableness as a Diachronic Human Trait	49	(16)
Valerie L. Havill
Elias Besevegis
Sophia Mouroussaki
4 A Developmental Integration of Conscientiousness From Childhood to Adulthood	65	(20)
Geldolph A. Kohnstamm
Yuching Zhang
Anne-Marie Slotboom
Eric Elphick
5 Emotional Stability: Developmental Perspectives From Childhood to Adulthood	85	(20)
Alois Angleitner
Geldolph A. Kohnstamm
Anne-Marie Slotboom
Elias Besevegis
6 Linking Openness and Intellect in Childhood and Adulthood	105	(22)
Ivan Mervielde
Filip De Fruyt
Slawomir Jarmuz
7 Developmental Changes in Personality Descriptions of Children: A Cross-National Comparison of Parental Descriptions of Children	127	(28)
Anne-Marie Slotboom
Valerie L. Havill
Vassilis Pavlopoulos
Filip De Fruyt
8 Parental Personality Descriptions of Boys and Girls	155	(14)
Filip De Fruyt
Alain Van Hiel
Veerle Buyst
9 How African American Parents Describe Their Children	169	(20)
James B. Victor
Harold E. Dent
Barbara Carter
Charles F. Halverson, Jr.
Valerie L. Havill
10 Validity of Results Obtained by Analyzing Free Personality Descriptions	189	(16)
Ivan Mervielde
Appendix: Composition of the Seven Samples	205	(6)
Anne-Marie Slotboom
Eric Elphick
Author Index	211	(6)
Subject Index	217