Lifespan Development, Global Edition

Product Information

SAGE Vantage is an intuitive digital platform that delivers this text’s content and course materials in a learning experience that offers auto-graded assignments and interactive multimedia tools, all carefully designed to ignite student engagement and drive critical thinking. Built with you and your students in mind, it offers simple course set-up and enables students to better prepare for class. Learn more. The text includes examples that are relevant to child development today and college students specifically. It also includes links to videos and supplementary material that are very current. That said, this text could benefit from including more current research to show that our understanding of development is an ongoing process, with new developments arising all the time.

A contextual perspective emphasizes how individual factors combined with the places, sociocultural environments, and ways in which we are raised influence who we become and how we grow and change throughout the lifespan. Adolescent Stage: Adolescence is a phase of rapid physical and socio-emotional transformation brought about by puberty. Also called the "teenager phase" between the ages of 13 to 19 years, the adolescent stage is defined as the transition from childhood to adulthood. In Piaget’s view, around the same time children develop object permanence, they also begin to exhibit stranger anxiety, which is a fear of unfamiliar people. Babies may demonstrate this by crying and turning away from a stranger, by clinging to a caregiver, or by attempting to reach their arms toward familiar faces such as parents. Stranger anxiety results when a child is unable to assimilate the stranger into an existing schema; therefore, she can’t predict what her experience with that stranger will be like, which results in a fear response. How would you answer this dilemma? Kohlberg was not interested in whether you answer yes or no to the dilemma: Instead, he was interested in the reasoning behind your answer. Nonnormative influences are unpredictable and not tied to a certain developmental time in a person’s development or to a historical period. They are the unique experiences of an individual, whether biological or environmental, that shape the development process. These could include milestones like earning a master’s degree or getting a certain job offer or other events like going through a divorce or coping with the death of a child.The overall organization, structure, and flow of the text is logical and consistent with the progression of developmental stages discussed in most human development textbooks. The headings, topics and learning objectives are appropriate and usable. The topics are recent and are likely to remain relevant for several years in the future. I find each section easy to access and could easily be utilized in small chunks/sections. Highly effective for teachability. newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}}}\) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash{#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

Format is highly organized and flows logically from one topic to the next in each developmental section. This text is organized similar to a traditional text book which can be beneficial to students who are new to OER learning materials or to those who may wish to print the PDF version for study review. Not all normative events are universal, meaning they are not experienced by all individuals across all cultures. Biological milestones, such as puberty, tend to be universal, but social milestones, such as the age when children begin formal schooling, are not necessarily universal; instead, they affect most individuals in a particular culture (Gesell & Ilg, 1946). For example, in developed countries children begin school around 5 or 6 years old, but in developing countries, like Nigeria, children often enter school at an advanced age, if at all (Huebler, 2005; United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2013). Later in this chapter, you will learn about several experiments in which toddlers and young children observe scenes or actions so that researchers can determine at what age specific cognitive abilities develop. For example, children may observe a quantity of liquid poured from a short, fat glass into a tall, skinny glass. As the experimenters question the children about what occurred, the subjects’ answers help psychologists understand at what age a child begins to comprehend that the volume of liquid remained the same although the shapes of the containers differs. Content is accurate and cites current literature. Important topics relating to each age group are used to exemplify theory and applications. How does context impact human growth and development? Do the places, sociocultural environments, and ways in which we are raised influence who we become and how we grow and change throughout our lives? Best-selling author Tara L. Kuther helps students discover the answers with Lifespan Development: Lives in Context. Taking a chronological approach, the book follows three core themes: the centrality of context, the importance of research, and the applied value of developmental science. Dr. Kuther’s clear, concise narrative guides students through current and classic studies and foundational theories while exploring real-world connections and inclusive perspectives. The Third Edition features case studies, policy applications, and other examples, each accompanied by opportunities for personal reflection, prompting students to carry these discoveries into their own lives, relationships, and future careers.This text examines how biological As toddlers (ages 1–3 years) begin to explore their world, they learn that they can control their actions and act on the environment to get results. They begin to show clear preferences for certain elements of the environment, such as food, toys, and clothing. A toddler’s main task is to resolve the issue of autonomy versus shame and doubt, by working to establish independence. This is the “me do it” stage. For example, we might observe a budding sense of autonomy in a 2-year-old child who wants to choose her clothes and dress herself. Although her outfits might not be appropriate for the situation, her input in such basic decisions has an effect on her sense of independence. If denied the opportunity to act on her environment, she may begin to doubt her abilities, which could lead to low self-esteem and feelings of shame. Overall, the content of this text, and the theories and concepts presented, are accurate. The authors are thorough in their coverage in a way that many texts are not, especially as it relates to adulthood and aging. The chapters related to adulthood and aging were thorough and accurate in outlining the dominant perspectives as it relates to adult development. Whereas other texts often cram a lot of demographics and stats as it relates to aging and cover concepts related to aging in a very shallow manner, this text presents theoretical concepts related to adulthood that has been well-researched and that offer a much fuller understanding of the changes taking place in adulthood. With that being said, there does appear to be a significant typo in Table 1.2. In this table, middle adulthood (ages 45-65) is erroneously omitted. It is clear it is just a simple error because there is an entire section devoted to covering this period in the lifespan. While I would say most of the information is relevant, this source focuses on timeless, general concepts, which are not likely to change. While there is merit in that approach, in this particular course, it is important and very challenging to keep up with trends and statistics of development. Many of the sources cited are dated. Up-to-date statistics and newly published research is sparse. Easily updated stats are a selling-point some make for OERs.

This text is written with clarity and with language suitable for undergraduate education. Concepts are introduced and while applications are shared and explained, the depth of knowledge provided makes this text appropriate for introductory level courses.

This text pays attention, as it should, to the significance of context and culture on development. The text presents the importance of context in the very first chapter and stresses the effects of context on development such as “status hierarchies” continuously throughout and within each chapter. Furthermore, throughout the text, many developmental topics are explored/explained and presented from differing cultural perspectives and the language for the material that I read appeared to be inclusive and unbiased. Someone learning human development from this text would have a clear understanding that context and culture affect development and that “universals” are challenged within this field and throughout this text. The text is pretty modular. The only issue is that it comes as a single PDF document, which leaves the student to "jump" between sections. An instructor can't just post a link to a section, though the Table of Contents does make navigation simple.

Great cultural contexts throughout including videos, references, and discussion in each topic area.

Development is lifelong

The book has a consistent structure, beginning with the overall themes of the course and an introduction to research methods, then following each stage of human development. After the chapter on infancy, a chapter on parenting is included. This unit feels out of place and represents a slight departure from the overall consistent structure of the text.