The Study of Adult Development, 1960-1985

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine how a sample of men adapt to life over time. The researcher examined the meaning of competence and psychological maturity of college men, their course and causes through the adult years, and the difference between males and females through their maturation. Through the middle years, this study hoped to shed light on the meaning of adult competence, successful adaptation, and happiness, and looked at participants' personality correlates and familial and adolescent precursors. As the study progressed, some data were collected from the wives of study participants. The study began in the early 1960s at a small all-male liberal arts college in the northeast U.S. All students upon matriculating were given a battery of tests. Students judged most and least effective in functioning by 18 teachers, students, counselors and coaches were included in the study along with a random selection of students of intermediate levels of effective functioning. Data were collected over five separate time periods spanning thirty years of the lives of participants. 80 men comprised the initial Time 1 sample for this study. All of the initial participants were white males from a socioeconomically privileged group. 41 wives were included at Time 4. The wives were more diverse in terms of age, class and race than their husbands. The Murray Archive holds additional analogue materials for this study (paper data for all five waves of this study, including psychological tests, interview transcripts, and notes, as well as audiotapes for Wave 4 interviews). If you would like to access this material, please apply to use the data. Audio Data Availability Note: This study contains audio data that have been digitized. There are 21 audio files available.本项纵向研究(longitudinal study)旨在探究一组男性样本随时间推移适应生活的过程。研究者围绕大学男性的胜任力(competence)与心理成熟度(psychological maturity)的内涵、成年阶段的发展轨迹及成因，以及两性在成熟进程中的差异展开了分析。在成年中期阶段，本研究旨在阐明成人胜任力、成功适应与幸福感的内涵，并考察参与者的人格相关因素，以及其家庭背景与青少年时期的前置影响因素。随着研究推进，团队还收集了部分男性参与者配偶（妻子）的相关数据。本研究于20世纪60年代早期在美国东北部一所小型男子文理学院启动。所有入学新生均需完成一套成套测试。研究纳入了由18位教师、学生、辅导员及教练评定为功能表现最优与最差的学生，同时随机选取了功能表现处于中等水平的学生作为研究对象。研究团队在参与者人生跨度达30年的五个独立时间节点完成了数据收集工作。本研究初始的Time 1样本共包含80名男性，所有初始参与者均为来自社会经济优势群体的白人男性。在Time 4节点，研究纳入了41位参与者的妻子，这些妻子在年龄、阶层与种族维度上较其丈夫更为多元。默里档案库(Murray Archive)保存了本研究的其他相关模拟资料：涵盖本研究全部五轮研究的纸质数据，包括心理测试问卷、访谈转录稿与记录笔记，以及Wave 4访谈的录音磁带。若需获取该研究资料，请提交数据使用申请。音频数据可用性说明：本研究包含已数字化的音频数据，共计可获取21个音频文件。