Today's world is characterized by a set of overarching trends that often come under the rubric of social change. In this innovative volume, Rainer K. Silbereisen and Xinyin Chen bring together, for the first time, international experts in the field to examine how changes in our social world impact on our individual development.

PART ONE: INTRODUCTIONHow Social Change Affects Individual Adaptation - Rainer K Silbereisen and Xinyin Chen PART TWO: DYNAMIC OF SOCIAL CHANGE AND INDIVIDUAL RESPONSES - Steffen SchmidtA Challenge-Response-Model in Research on Social ChangeLife Management in Developmental Settings of Modernity - Jochen Brandtstädter Challenges to the Adaptive SelfConceptualizing the Dynamics of Lives and Historical Times - Ross Macmillan and Arturo Baiocchi Life-Course Phenomena, Institutional Dynamics and Socio-Historical ChangePART THREE: DETERMINANTS ON THE INDIVIDUAL LEVELGlobalization, Institutional Filters and Changing Life-Course - Dirk Hofäcker et al Patterns in Modern SocietiesDemands of Social Change and Psychosocial Adjustment - Rainer K Silbereisen et alGlobalization, Social Inequality and Individual Agency in Human Development - Jutta Heckhausen Social Change for Better or Worse?PART FOUR: TRANSITIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVEInstitutional Responses to Social Change in Comparative Perspective - Reinhold SackmannClass, Stratification and Personality under Conditions of Apparent Social Stability and of Radical Social Change - Melvin L KohnChildren¿s Socio-Emotional Functioning and Adjustment in the Changing Chinese Society - Xinyin Chen and Hiuchang ChenSocial Change and Premarital Sexual Behaviour and Attitudes in Vietnam - Rukmalie Jayakody et alSocial Change and Transition Experiences among Young Adults in Britain - Ingrid SchoonPolitical Elites as an Agent of Social Change - Jacek Wasilewski The Polish Perspective