Human Development Theories: Windows on Culture

―Ann C. Diver-Stamnes, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Education, Humboldt State University, California

The contents of the book are based on the observation that the human perceptual system and a camera are both bound by the same limitation. Neither the camera nor the person can focus on everything at once. The camera, in order to portray a panoramic landscape in all its detail, must take a succession of individual snapshots, each featuring a particular center of interest. The person, in order to comprehend a culture in all its complexities, must perceive the culture from a succession of vantage points. Throughout the book, those vantage points are provided by 25 theories of human development. Each theory is intended to delineate a particular aspect of culture, including many global examples of culture, thereby contributing toward a broad understanding of culture and its influence on human development.

 R. Murray Thomas (Ph.D., Stanford University) is an emeritus professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where for three decades he taught educational psychology and directed the program in international education. He began his 50-year career in education as a high school teacher at Kamehameha Schools and Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu, then continued at the college level at San Francisco State University, the State University of New York (Brockport), and Pajajaran University in Indonesia before moving to Santa Barbara. His professional publications exceed 340, including 46 books for which he served as author, coauthor, or editor.