Lea Pulkkinen is Academy Professor at the Academy of Finland and Professor of Psychology at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. She has published extensively on personality and development including articles in the International Journal of Behavioral Development, the Journal of Research in Personality and the Journal of Adult Development. Avshalom Caspi is Professor of Personality and Social Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, England, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He is co-author of Sex Differences in Antisocial Behaviour (Cambridge, 2001).

• Personality and paths to successful development: an overview Lea Pulkkinen and Avshalom Caspi; Part I. Temperament and Emotion Regulation: 1. Temperament and socialization Mary K. Rothbart and Samuel P. Putnam; 2. The role of emotionality and regulation in children's social competence and adjustment Nancy Eisenberg, Richard A. Fabes, Ivanna K. Guthrie and Mark Reiser; Part II. Formation of Social Relationships: 3. Attachment relationships and appraisal of partnership: from early experience of sensitive support to later relationship representation Klaus E. Grossmann, Karin Grossmann, Monika Winter and Peter Zimmermann; 4. How do adolescents select their friends? a behaviour genetic perspective Richard J. Rose; Part III. Continuity in Individual Life Paths: 5. Personality types in childhood and adolescence: main effects and person-relationship transactions Marcel A. G. van Aken, Cornelis F. M. van Lieshout, Ron H. J. Scholte and Gerbert J. T. Haselager; 6. The influence of early behaviour patterns on later life Glen H. Elder, Jr. and Robert Crosnoe; 7. Studying processes: some methodological considerations Lars Bergman; Part IV. Environmental Contributions to Personality Development: 8. The role of ethnic identity in personality development Brett Laursen and Vicki Williams; 9. Time and change: psychosocial transition in German adults 1991 and 1996 Rainer K. Silbereisen, Matthias Reitzle and Linda Juang; Part V. Life Transitions: 10. Developmental regulation of life-course transitions: a control theory approach Jutta Heckhausen; 11. Social selection, social causation, and developmental pathways: empirical strategies for better understanding how individuals and environments are linked across the life course Avshalom Caspi; 12. Pathways through challenge: implications for well-being and health Carol D. Ryff, Burton H. Singer and Marsha Mailick Seltzer; Part VI. Personal Goals and Well-Being: 13. Individual differences in personal goals in mid-thirties Lea Pulkkinen, Jari-Erik Nurmi and Katja Kokko; 14. Social Production Function (SPF) theory as an heuristic for understanding developmental trajectories and outcomes Johan Ormel; 15. Searching for paths to successful development and ageing: integrating developmental and action-theoretical perspectives Jochen Brandstädter.

'The editors and authors are to be congratulated for the quality of the collection … The book is recommended for any scholar interested in personality, development, and adaptive and maladaptive lives.' International Journal of Behavioural Development