Person-oriented approaches within a multi-level perspective

Abstract

I propose that empirical psychology should study individual characteristics at both the person and the population level because both exclusively person-oriented analyses and exclusively population-oriented analyses are seriously limited. Multi-level regression models are well suited for this task because they simultaneously estimate within-person and be-tween-person parameters, and do not require many assessments within persons, but can nevertheless easily model complex within-person relations. I illustrate application of such models with a three-level model of the intraindividual change of relationship-specific interpersonal conflict during an important life transition.