From Birth to Late Adulthood: An Introduction to Lifespan Development

Written for a non-specialist audience, From Birth to Late Adulthood: An Introduction to Lifespan Development explores human psychological development from conception to end-of-life. The book opens with a discussion of the discipline itself to prepare students to appropriately contextualize and interpret the material. It then moves on to discuss the cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of psychological development, and to consider all of these in conjunction with issues of diversity.

The second edition features refreshed content throughout, including updated census data and information related to diversity, language, and different ethnicities. New checkpoints and images throughout the chapters introduce, highlight, and reinforce key concepts. Additionally, coverage of theory has been revised and simplified for greater student understanding and retention.

The book provides students with essential information without being overwhelming or inaccessible to introductory students. Of note is a preface to the text that reviews methods for studying and learning successfully. The book can be used in undergraduate psychology courses and is also well-suited to professional courses in nursing, social work, and education.

Claire W. Lyons earned her Ph.D. in psychology at The Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is a professor of psychology at James Madison University, where she teaches lifespan human development and maintains a research lab. Her current research focuses on teaching and learning in the large classroom. Her work has been published in Research in Education and Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties.