Development Through Life: a Psychosocial Approach

This chronologically organized book integrates the biological, psychological, and societal forces that combine to produce development, balancing the focus on inner characteristics of the person with extensive consideration of the family and social environment. The Newmans bridge the gap between theory and practice by presenting a view of the developing person, coping with daily demands and achieving new levels of mastery at each life stage.

The psychosocial emphasis leads naturally to giving a central role to the importance of diversity, including race, ethnicity, social class, gender, culture, and sexual orientation throughout the text. At each period of life, one is led to examine ways that one's social context influences meaning-making, coping, and adaptation.

Barbara M. Newman (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is a professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Rhode Island. She has also been on the faculty at Russell Sage College and The Ohio State University, where she served as department chair in Human Development and Family Science and as associate provost for Faculty Recruitment and Development. She teaches courses in life-span development, adolescence, family theories, and the research process. Also an active researcher, Dr. Newman's interests focus on parent-child relationships in early adolescence, factors that promote success in the transition to high school, and the use of the cohort sequential design as an approach to the study of development. Her research includes an analysis of the role of family, peer, and school support in the transition to high school (funded by the University of Rhode Island's Research Foundation). For fun, Newman enjoys reading, making up projects with her grandchildren, taking walks along Narragansett Bay and Block Island Sound, and spending time with her family.

Philip R. Newman (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is involved in research on the transition to high school as well as on group identity and alienation. His projects include an analysis of issues related to disrupted transitions in adolescence and early adulthood, and a book about how high schools can meet the psychosocial needs of adolescents. He has taught courses in introductory psychology, adolescence, social psychology, developmental psychology, counseling, and family, school, and community contexts for development. He served as the director for Research and Evaluation of the Young Scholars Program at The Ohio State University and as the director of the Human Behavior Curriculum Project for the American Psychological Association. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), and the American Orthopsychiatric Association. For fun, Newman enjoys photography, reading mysteries, attending concerts and Broadway plays, and watching baseball. He home schooled his three children through elementary and middle school. Together, the Newmans have worked on programs to bring low-income minority youths to college and to study the processes involved in their academic success. They are coauthors of 13 books, including a book on theories of human development, and numerous articles in the field of human development.