Human Development: A Life-Span View

Balanced coverage of the entire life span is just one thing that distinguishes HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: A LIFE-SPAN VIEW, 5TH EDITION. With its comprehensive, succinct, and applied coverage, the text has proven its ability to capture students' interest while introducing them to the issues, forces, and outcomes that make us who we are. Robert V. Kail's expertise in childhood and adolescence, combined with John C. Cavanaugh's extensive research in gerontology, result in a book with a rich description of all life-span stages and important topics. A modified chronological approach traces development in sequential order from conception through late life, while also dedicating several chapters to key topical issues. This organization also allows the book to be relatively briefer than other texts--a benefit given the enormous amount of information covered in the course.

Robert V. Kail is Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University. He has served as Associate Editor for the journal Child Development, and is currently Editor of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology and the Editor of Advances in Child Development and Behavior. His research interests are in the area of cognitive development during childhood and adolescence, and focus on the causes and consequences of developmental change in the speed of information processing.

John C. Cavanaugh, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, is chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Previously, he was President of University of West Florida. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, The American Psychological Society, and the Gerontological Society of America. He has been an American Council of Education Fellow and elected President of the Adult Development and Aging Division of the APA (Division 20). In addition, Dr. Cavanaugh was a Congressionally selected delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging. His research interests in gerontology concern family care-giving as well as the role of beliefs in older adult's cognitive performance. He is also the co-author of ADULT DEVELOPMENT AND AGING, 6th Edition (Wadsworth, 2011) with Fredda Blanchard-Fields.