Women on the River of Life: A Fifty-Year Study of Adult DevelopmentCommenced in 1958 with 142 young women who were seniors at Mills College, the Mills Study has become the largest and longest longitudinal study of women’s adult development, with assessments of these women in their twenties, forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies. Women on the River of Life synthesizes five decades of research to paint a picture of women’s personality and development across the lifespan. The book explores questions of family, work, life-path, maturity, wisdom, creativity, attachment, and purpose in life, unfolding in the context of a rapidly changing historical period with far-reaching consequences for the kinds of lives women would envision for themselves. Helson and Mitchell breathe life into abstract theories and concepts with the real-life stories and voices of the study’s participants. Woven throughout the book are the authors’ reminiscences on the profound endeavor of sustaining a longitudinal study of women’s lives through time. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 13 | |
Transforming into a Study of Womens Adult Development | 27 |
Sustaining Fifty Years of the Mills Study | 41 |
early adulthood | 57 |
The Roots of Creativity in Women | 59 |
The Social Clock Projects | 72 |
Marriage and Motherhood | 86 |
The Astonishing Importance of Personality | 156 |
middle | 173 |
Ups and Downs in Middle Age | 186 |
developmental achievements | 223 |
Three Conceptions of Positive | 237 |
Wisdom | 251 |
Tasks of the Second | 266 |
the crown of life | 279 |
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ability able accept achievement activities adult adulthood affect asked assessment associated attachment became become began begin career chapter child commitment complexity consider continued created creative culture described early emotional example expected experience feel felt feminine fifties five four friends goals graduate growth Helson husband ideas identity important included increased individual influence inner integrity interests involved Journal kind late later learned less lives look major marriage married measure middle age Mills study Mills women mother moved one’s Openness parents patterns percent period personality positive potential problems psychology questions rated relationship responsibility retirement roles satisfaction scale scores secure sense social clock project stage status story structure successful theory things thought tion traits values wanted wisdom woman wrote young