The Study of Men’s Lives

Abstract

In this book the lives of a group of men are explored as they pass from early adolescence into early adulthood. The men, all born between 1940 and 1946, became participants in a longitudinal study of development begun in 1955 by Lawrence Kohlberg. At 3- to 4-year intervals for the next 20 years, first as adolescents, then as men, they were intensively interviewed, revealing their values, goals, and perspectives on their lives. In addition, their parents, teachers, and classmates offered information about them through interviews and rating scales. There are literally thousands of pages of information collected from and about these men—transcribed interviews, questionnaires, rating scales, interviewer impressions—and it is possible to follow their lives from early adolescence, when they entered the study, through early adulthood, when the study ended.