The course of individual adaptation to life changes

The study of internal processes of adaptation to external life changes is presented as a concrete approach to studying one kind of person--situation interaction. Theoretical and empirical descriptions of the course of emotional adaptation to changes and reviewed. The empirical derivation and cross-validation of a measure of four stances in a sequence of emotional adaptation to the external environment are described. Then, the validity of the notion that life changes stimulate emotional adaptation is tested in a separate study comparing college freshmen and seniors. Results indicate that freshman are concerned with issues characteristic of earlier developmental stances and seniors with later ones. The relevance and benefits of this general approach and specific methodology for the study of personality and adult development are discussed.