The concept of stasis in human character development is a key philosophical issue in the theory of education. The "finished man" theory - that popular hand-me-down of Victorian era educators taken on recently as a major component of the contemporary "back-to-basics" political agenda - would have it believed that development of a personality, complete with work skills and maturity levels equitable to the demands of modern society, can and should be completed by the end of one's formal education, i.e., on or about the ages of eighteen through twenty-one, depending upon the high school or college aspirations of the individual. This sentiment is somewhat hysterically echoed by social reformers of a more liberal bent eager to provide equal opportunities for societal achievement to the young of minority status: education is recognized as one of the important foundation blocks to that success, hence, the graduating minority student must be provided a completed foundation upon which to build. The three studies examined in this following essay (Lerner, 1990; Hock & Schirtzinger, 1992; Caspi, Elder & Bem, 1988), however, all point to an empirical objection to the "finished man" theory --- successful human development never reaches a point of stasis.
Which is not to state that the articles under review attack the issue head-on. Rather, each article considers empirical studies of human development from a different perspective, as evidenced by their titles:
"Plasticity, Person-Context Relations, and Cognitive Training in Aged Years: A Developmental Contextual Perspective" (Lerner, 1990);
"Maternal Separation Anxiety: Its Developmental Course and Relation to Maternal Mental Health" (Hock & Schirtzinger, 1992);
"Moving Away From the World: Life-Course Patterns of Shy Children" (Caspi, Elder & Bem, 1988).
Those differences of approach accounted for, the silent issue addressed by each set of authors remains the same: Do "succe...