Women on the River of Life: A Fifty-Year Study of Adult Development

Description

Commenced 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. Cover Women on the River of Life Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction and Overview 1. How the Mills Study Came About 2. Transforming into a Study of Women’s Adult Development 3. Sustaining Fifty Years of the Mills Study PART I. EARLY ADULTHOOD 4. The Roots of Creativity in Women 5. The Social Clock Projects 6. Marriage and Motherhood 7. Illustrating Two Developmental Theories 8. Loevinger’s Theory of Ego Development PART II. MAJOR INFLUENCES 9. The Enormous Impact of Gender Expectations 10. The Sweep of History: Individualism, Gay Liberation, the Counterculture 11. The Astonishing Importance of Personality PART III. MIDDLE AGE 12. The Social Clock in Middle Age 13. Ups and Downs in Middle Age 14. Whatever Happened to Creativity in Women? 15. Women’s Prime of Life PART IV. DEVELOPMENTAL ACHIEVEMENTS 16. The Centrality of Attachment 17. Paths of Development: Three Conceptions of Positive Mental Health 18. Wisdom 19. Generativity and Individuation: Tasks of the Second Half of Life PART V. THE CROWN OF LIFE 20. Answering Four Questions about Creative Personality 21. The Place of Purpose in Life in Women’s Positive Aging: Women with Low Purpose 22. The Place of Purpose in Life in Women’s Positive Aging: Women with High Purpose 23. Late Adulthood: The Third Age Complete Published Work of the Mills Study References Index