Together with the Betula program, Individual Development and Adaptation (IDA) is the largest longitudinal research program in psychology in Sweden. Over 2000 school children have been followed from 10-13 years of age to adult age with the purpose of studying the adaptation process.

Important research areas include the educational and vocational process, the evolvement of social adjustment, psychological factors explaining health in middle age, and factors contributing to a high subjective well-being in midlife. A holistic-interactionistic research paradigm provides the general framework for the studies and it implies a perspective where, as far as possible, each person as a whole is regarded as the functional unit in the system under study. Within IDA methodological research is also carried out, including the development of a statistical package for person-oriented analysis.

The IDA data base satisfies high demands on representativness and participation rate. The program was started by David Magnusson and is now led by the applicant. Presently about 20 researchers collaborate within the program and IDA has generated more than 500 publications and 15 doctoral theses.