Exploring lifespan development (2nd ed )

This shorter, essentials version of Berk's best-selling Development Through the Lifespan, 5/e,covers the same topics and contains the same number of chapters, but presents only the essential information with anexceptionally strong emphasis on applications.Exploring Lifespan Development includes all the features Berk's texts are known for: Engaging writing style, exceptional cross-cultural focus, rich examples, the most up-to-date research, and practical applications that help students relate the subject to their personal and professional lives.

Laura Berk, renowned professor and researcher, has refashioned her text to provide the core information in the field with an exceptionally strong emphasis on applications. Visually stunning, pedagogically balanced, and fully integrated, the Exploring edition has all the great features of Development Through the Lifespan, 5e, in an abbreviated form. The latest theories and findings in the field are made accessible to students in a manageable and relevant way.

Berk's signature storytelling style invites students to actively learn beside the text's 'characters,' who share their influential experiences and developmental milestones. Students are provided with an exceptionally clear and coherent understanding of the sequence and underlying processes of human development, emphasizing the interrelatedness of all domains-physical, cognitive, emotional, social-throughout the text narrative and in special features.

Berk also helps students connect their learning to their personal and professional areas of interest. Her voice comes through when speaking directly about issues students will face in their future pursuits as parents, educators, heath care providers, social workers, and researchers. As members of a global and diverse human community, students are called to intelligently approach the responsibility of understanding and responding to the needs and concerns of both young and old.

Berk presents the most important classic and emerging theories in an especially clear, coherent, engaging writing style, with a multitude of research-based, real-world, and cross-cultural examples. Strengthening the connections among developmental domains and highlighting the application of theories and research to the real world, this text presents the most important scholarship in the changing field of human development.

PART I. THEORY AND RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: History, Theory, and Research Strategies
A Scientific, Applied, and Interdisciplinary Field
Basic Issues
The Lifespan Perspective: A Balanced Point of View
Scientific Beginnings
Mid-Twentieth-Century Theories
Recent Theoretical Perspectives
Comparing Theories
Studying Development

Ethics in Lifespan Research

PART II. FOUNDATIONS OF DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 2: Biological and Environmental Foundations

Genetic Foundations

Reproductive Choices

Environmental Contexts for Development

Understanding the Relationship Between Heredity and Environment

Chapter 3: Prenatal Development, Birth, and the Newborn Baby

Prenatal Development
Prenatal Environmental Influences
Childbirth
Approaches to Childbirth
Medical Interventions
Preterm and Low-Birth-Weight Infants
Birth Complications, Parenting, and Resilience
The Newborn Baby's Capacities
Adjusting to the New Family Unit

PART III. INFANCY AND TODDLERHOOD: THE FIRST TWO YEARS

Chapter 4: Physical Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Body Growth
Brain Development
Influences on Early Physical Growth
Learning Capacities
Motor Development
Perceptual Development

Chapter 5: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Piaget's Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Information Processing
The Social Context of Early Mental Development
Individual Differences in Early Mental Development
Language Development

Chapter 6: Emotional and Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Erikson's Theory of Infant and Toddler Personality
Emotional Development
Temperament and Development
Development of Attachment
Self-Development During the First Two Years

PART IV. EARLY CHILDHOOD: TWO TO SIX YEARS

Chapter 7: Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
A Changing Body and Brain
Influences on Physical Growth and Health
Motor Development
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget's Theory: The Preoperational Stage
Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory
Information Processing
Individual Differences in Mental Development
Language Development

Chapter 8: Emotional and Social Development in Early Childhood

Erikson's Theory: Initiative versus Guilt
Self-Understanding
Emotional Development
Peer Relations
Foundations of Morality
Gender Typing
Child Rearing and Emotional and Social Development

PART V. MIDDLE CHILDHOOD: SIX TO ELEVEN YEARS

Chapter 9: Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Body Growth
Health Issues
Motor Development and Play
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget's Theory: The Concrete Operational Stage
Information Processing
Individual Differences in Mental Development
Language Development
Learning in School

Chapter 10: Emotional and Social Development in Middle Childhood

Erikson's Theory: Industry versus Inferiority
Self-Understanding
Emotional Development
Understanding Others: Perspective Taking
Moral Development
Peer Relations
Gender Typing
Family Influences
Some Common Problems of Development

PART VI. ADOLESCENCE: THE TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD

Chapter 11: Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Conceptions of Adolescence
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