Social Change and Human Development

Rainer K. Silbereisen was Professor and Head of the Department of Developmental Psychology at the University of Jena (Germany), Adjunct Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University (USA), and is currently Director of the Center for Applied Developmental Science (CADS). He is Fellow of the American Psychological Association and Member of the European Academy of Sciences (London). He was Editor of the International Journal of Behavioral Development and of the journal European Psychologist. He was Chair of the Board of the German Social Science Infrastructure Services (GESIS), is a former President of the German Psychological Society and of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD). He was until recently President of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) and is now Past-President. A psychologist by training, he has been involved in interdisciplinary large scale research on human development across the life-span, and in particular on the role of social change in positive and maladaptive human development, utilizing a cross-cultural and biopsychosocial format. With the help of private foundations, he has established training programs for young investigators from developing countries. He has edited about 20 books and published more than 250 scholarly articles.

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION How Social Change Affects Individual Adaptation - Rainer K Silbereisen and Xinyin Chen PART TWO: DYNAMIC OF SOCIAL CHANGE AND INDIVIDUAL RESPONSES - Steffen Schmidt A Challenge-Response-Model in Research on Social Change Life Management in Developmental Settings of Modernity - Jochen Brandtstaedter Challenges to the Adaptive Self Conceptualizing the Dynamics of Lives and Historical Times - Ross Macmillan and Arturo Baiocchi Life-Course Phenomena, Institutional Dynamics and Socio-Historical Change PART THREE: DETERMINANTS ON THE INDIVIDUAL LEVEL Globalization, Institutional Filters and Changing Life-Course - Dirk Hofaecker et al Patterns in Modern Societies Demands of Social Change and Psychosocial Adjustment - Rainer K Silbereisen et al Globalization, Social Inequality and Individual Agency in Human Development - Jutta Heckhausen Social Change for Better or Worse? PART FOUR: TRANSITIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Institutional Responses to Social Change in Comparative Perspective - Reinhold Sackmann Class, Stratification and Personality under Conditions of Apparent Social Stability and of Radical Social Change - Melvin L Kohn Children's Socio-Emotional Functioning and Adjustment in the Changing Chinese Society - Xinyin Chen and Hiuchang Chen Social Change and Premarital Sexual Behaviour and Attitudes in Vietnam - Rukmalie Jayakody et al Social Change and Transition Experiences among Young Adults in Britain - Ingrid Schoon Political Elites as an Agent of Social Change - Jacek Wasilewski The Polish Perspective