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Connect with us to learn more. Laura E. Berk is a distinguished professor of psychology at Illinois State University, where she has taught child, adolescent, and lifespan development for more than three decades. Her empirical studies have attracted the attention of the general public, leading to contributions to Psychology Today and Scientific American. Berk has served as a research editor of Young Children , a consulting editor for Early Childhood Research Quarterly , and an associate editor of the Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology.
She is a frequent contributor to edited volumes, having written the article on social development for The Child: An Encyclopedic Companion and the article on Vygotsky for The Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. In addition to Development Through the Lifespan , she is author of the best-selling texts Child Development and Infants, Children, and Adolescents , published by Pearson.
She serves on the governing boards of the Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies and of Artolution, an organization devoted to engaging children, youths, and their families in collaborative public art projects around the world as a means of promoting conflict-resolution, relief from trauma, and resilience.
Paper Bound with Access Card. We're sorry! We don't recognize your username or password. Please try again. The work is protected by local and international copyright laws and is provided solely for the use of instructors in teaching their courses and assessing student learning. You have successfully signed out and will be required to sign back in should you need to download more resources. Exploring Lifespan Development, 4th Edition. Berk, Illinois State University. Take a closer look Description For courses in Human Development Unparalleled Among Human Development Texts — In a Class by Itself Exploring Lifespan Development , Fourth Edition , the shorter, essentials version of Development Through the Lifespan , Seventh Edition, covers the same topics and contains the same number of chapters, but presents only the essential information, with an exceptionally strong emphasis on applications.
MyLab Human Development is ideal for courses requiring robust assessments. Learn more. Thoroughly Engaging Writing Style Berk makes the study of human development both involving and pleasurable for students. Exploring Lifespan Development is written in an engaging, personal style — one that is highly accessible — and contains real-life human-interest stories. The author encourages students to relate what they read to their own lives.
Stories and vignettes of real individuals, a Berk signature feature, open each chapter and continue throughout the text to illustrate developmental principles and teach through engaging narrative. Appealing and Meaningful Applications Integrated throughout the text, these applications show students how their learning relates to real-world situations.
Applications are relevant to students pursuing a variety of fields, including psychology, education, nursing and other health professions, sociology, anthropology, family studies, and social services.
The Look and Listen feature promotes active learning, asking students to observe what real individuals say and do, speak with or observe parents, teachers, or other professionals, and inquire into community programs and practices that influence children, adolescents, and adults.
Applying What We Know tables provide practical real-life applications based on theory and research findings. Each hyperlink I tested within the textbook worked properly. The textbook does an adequate job describing that human development occurs in variety of contexts, one of those contexts being culture.
However, the textbook could provide a more in-depth description of the impact of culture on various developmental concepts. For example, the textbook frequently states, "in some cultures, The comprehensiveness of the textbook is interesting, as there are only ten chapters.
In other words, the authors pack a great deal of information into each chapter. This book covers all of the requisite topics for an introductory or survey This book covers all of the requisite topics for an introductory or survey developmental psychology course.
This is an introductory level textbook, so specific research found in higher level courses would be missing. For the most part, this text covers the basics well, and any inaccuracies are negligible and can be overcome with good discussion.
The thoroughness of the coverage, which is a strength, makes this text very relevant to get a good discussion of actual human development going. This textbook is very easy to read and follow. Any technical terms and theoretical concepts are well defined and illustrated within an applicable context. There is no real individual psychological perspectives evident here beyond the basic introduction to this context of human psychology.
For this reason, all areas of the human lifespan get fair coverage and presentation. With a lifespan development course, it is easier to present material that can be discussed as physical, cognitive, or socioemotional.
This textbook is divided by stage of life alone. For this reason, it may be difficult to separate chapters into smaller reading sections easily.
The text follows a nice, logical pathway through the human lifespan with a pretty strong connection between stages of development. There is a pleasant focus on diversity and inclusion in both the text and the illustrations. There is some attempt to apply the principles discussed beyond the dominant culture of America, without this being forced and artificial. I would highly recommend this textbook for an introductory, level developmental psychology course. It hits all the right points and is engaging enough to stimulate some good class discussions.
This textbook is VERY comprehensive and covers lifespan development from prenatal development to death and dying. There is a very detailed Table of Contents; making it easy to find age groupings, theories, or concepts in development. There is no There is no glossary, which would be helpful to find mentions of a specific term. Overall this textbook covers a great deal of material, without delving into the topic of atypical development.
Most of the content is still current, and the publication dates for this text is However there is an emphasis on Howard Gardener's Multiple Intelligence theory in Chapter 5 which has much research against it currently. Neither of which are mentioned in the text. I plan on using only several chapters of this textbook for a focus on child development ages 3-elementary; chapters 1, 4, and 5.
These chapters do make sense on their own and will work as good content for my child development course. However, I wished that the theories that were mentioned, a few in each chapters, either could have all been combined in one chapter, or were easier to pull for individual readings for an online course.
Other than the theories, the book moves in a linear fashion from prenatal development to death and dying. Theories are interspersed in a variety of chapters. The book does not mention cultural diversity, cultural bias, diversity of children and families, and other key topics needed in a child development text.
Supplemental material will be needed to focus on this subject. On the whole, the book is very comprehensive, though there were a few places where it could have used a bit more.
I did not see much on atypical development outside early childhood years which would be beneficial to include. It would also be It would also be nice to see a wider range of cultural studies. The text does not utilize a glossary, but the words are defined in the chapters and you can search the document if using as an e-book to find words which is even easier than a traditional glossary.
Though if a student wants to print out the text, a glossary would be helpful. This textbook is a straightforward discussion of human life span development which, as a field, is always growing. This book is largely current and accurate, but there should be updates as some references are older. Though the information is presented without bias and with references for further research. The book is current and mostly up to date as of , though some of the references are a bit old. It worked when the authors were using the original work for a theory but other sources could be updated.
Including some of the newer studies would increase relevance to the technological age we are in. The text is clear, easy to read, and understandable while still providing in-depth information. The graphics helped to clarify ideas, especially when explaining or comparing theories. The look and feel of the text hold consistency through the document. This text is sectioned into logical chunks that can be taught individually or in conjunction with each other.
You do not need to read one chapter to understand the following one meaning the book could be taught any number of different ways to match with a variety of courses. The book is organized into age periods, which is the way I think about the course information, though not the way I have always seen it presented in a text. So, the overall organization matched my thinking quite nicely. This organization also makes it easy to break the text into sections if the entire life span is separated over multiple classes for example, if someone taught birth through adolescence only.
The text is pleasant to look at with calming colors and a variety of images and graphics that represent cultural diversity. There are no digital or navigational issues with the book. The text is not offensive or insulting to any group and handles discussions of differences well.
The book is quite comprehensive. It addresses all developmental milestones and the major theories that accompany them. It provides appropriate depth to each topic and offers a thorough explanation of the subject. The book does not possess an The book is accurate, error-free and unbiased. It is a straightforward presentation of Lifespan material in and objective and researched light. There are references at the end of each chapter to support the context of the text.
There are no attempts to persuade the reader into to thinking that there is a correct or incorrect way to think about the material presented in each chapter. It is factual and the facts are supported by multiple references in most cases. There are a variety of references provided for the material presented. Some of the references are current and some are rather dated. In some cases the authors went to the original source for a theory or study, which is fine for most clearly presenting the idea; however, at other times the references for material in the text were from the 's or 's and could soon be or already be considered obsolete.
On the bright side, the material is written in such a way that it should not be difficult to up-date this text with more modern references throughout the book. The book is very clear and written in easily understandable terms. Everything is defined and explained in a thorough manner for most undergraduate readers. Yet, it is sophisticated enough that I am planning on adopting it for my graduate human development course.
This is because while it defines most terms and explains most theories, it does so in such a way that it provides enough depth to substantiate the theory or term presented. This book is presented in order of development from pre-birth to old age and dying, touching upon milestones and developmental considerations along the way. It is internally sound and all work is referenced and themes are carried from chapter to chapter. For example, Erikson's Psychosocial Stages are presented in each chapter, as well as physical aspects of development.
As noted earlier, all terminology is supported by referenced material which addes to the structural integrity of this text. The book is readily divided up into different modules. One chapter is not dependent upon the next for a thorough understanding of each stage of development.
The book could be assigned in any order without difficulty or too much self-referencing. The book is organized in the most logical fashion for a developmental textbook: from birth to old age. It is free from technical jargon and presents material in a logical and understandable manner. The images and diagrams in the text represent diverse populations in terms of age, gender, race and LGBTQA populations.
The images and diagrams enhance the text and are pleasing to look at. The text is not culturally offensive and the pictures are very diverse. There are not too many other diverse populations represented, apart from age and gender.
There are some considerations given to racial and ethnic differences but not enough. The book would benefit from more multicultural references.
The courses I teach primarily cover birth through middle childhood, so my review focused most heavily on chapters The text is comprehensive in that it covers a wide range of topics you would expect in such a book. However, it may be However, it may be improved by providing more depth in many of the areas. Even for use in a broad survey course, it would be nice to have more examples to help students understand the basic concepts they are reading about. For example, when covering longitudinal research, I might expect the author to mention an example of landmark longitudinal research in the field.
There are certainly some examples e. This text would also benefit from a glossary. While an eText allows students to search for terms easily, for those students who print the pdf for preference or issues of accessibility , a glossary would be helpful. A few errors stood out, and makes me imagine there are others in areas outside my expertise that I did not catch.
One small example is the author lacks accuracy in stating: "Although the behaviorists were incorrect in their beliefs that it was not possible to measure thoughts and feelings". This is a misunderstanding and oversimplification of Skinner's analysis of public versus private events.
Skinner, and other subsequent radical behaviorists, welcomed the scientific analysis of private events, and noted each individual is the observer of their own thoughts. The view that private events have no place in science was that of Watson and the methodological behaviorists. Being a half century past the shift to radical behaviorism, it may be time to start representing the field of behaviorism more accurately. Mostly relevant with many citations. As a publication however, I would have expected the author to use more up-to-date data in some areas.
For example, the author referenced a CDC publication with autism prevalence data from 1 in 88 children in US. It would have been more relevant to use publications which showed CDC prevalence rates were then 1 in 68 children in the US.
With that said, the text is written in a way that could be easily updated publication of CDC numbers estimate the prevalence of ASD to be 1 in 59 in US. I believe students would enjoy the clarity of this text, in terms of its concise writing.
This text does a nice job of avoiding jargon, or clearly explaining the terminology when it is used. Where I think it could improve is in providing some additional examples to illustrate some concepts.
Additional figures or links to videos might really benefit readers in their ability to quickly digest material. There seems to be a clear framework that is easy to follow across all chapters. The text is easy to navigate in terms of its internal consistency. This text could be used in a modular fashion. One area that adversely impacts modularity, which I touch on in the organization section as well, is how the book covers individuals with disabilities.
For example, discussion of ASD is self contained in the chapter on early childhood. While the author briefly touches on the ability of adults with autism to live and work independently, this would be missed if using a modular approach of only assigning the chapter on adulthood. As is typical of many other human development texts, the author does a nice job of consistently referencing hallmark theories e.
Erikson's stages of development across the chronological chapters. This allows for the reader to build upon prior knowledge, but is done in a way that doesn't limit modularity too much. One area for improvement would be looking at atypical development and individuals experiencing disabilities across all chapters. Discussions of lifelong disabilities, such as Down syndrome, tended to be concentrated in early chapters, without touching on how individual's lives might be impacted in adulthood.
This tends to be a problem with other human development texts as well, where atypical development is treated more as a token issue, often as a standalone chapter. Images and charts are all clearly displayed in the pdf. While navigation could be improved by including links to more outside sources, or the ability to easily jump between chapters and topics by clicking on the index, there are no significant interface issues.
I think users of eTexts have come to expect them to be a little easier to navigate through internal links between chapters or to a glossary if it had one. While no text is perfect, as described by some other reviewers, I found myself wanting a greater focus on diversity. It would have been nice to see a focus not only on issues of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, but also on topics like military culture, immigrant culture, and disability culture.
Overall, I found this to be one of the strongest OER options for human development I've come across, at least for an undergraduate survey course. It is easy to think about topics that could be enhanced, such as cultural perspectives, but I think it is worth remembering that there is a finite amount of content that can be covered in one semester.
No one text can meet the needs for all courses in developmental psychology or human development, but I thank the authors for creating and sharing something that likely fits the needs for some course very well. Overall I found this text to be very comprehensive in covering all of the developmental stages and topics that I have used in other textbooks.
It has a good layout of information that is for the most part relevant and up to date. I found at least one instance of out of date information- in Chapter 2 it discusses the law that went into effect in Tennessee that women who use drugs while pregnant can be charged, however that bill was allowed to sunset in and that is no longer the case so this is outdated information.
Hopefully this OER text will be reviewed regularly and updated. I noticed that in discussing Children and The Media in Chapter 4 there is but a brief paragraph or two and it only pertains to tv not social media or any devices such as smartphones or tablets which are a huge topic of developmental discussion. Also, I do not see any mention of social media and it's influence on teens in the chapter on adolescence.
Would need to provide up to date and supplementary materials. Yes I found the text and writing to be very precise, clear and easy to comprehend for students. Didn't seem to be too much terminology and if used it was defined pretty well.
The reader knows what to expect in terms of presentation and formatting. There are quite a few sub-headings and divisions or modulations within the chapters. It isn't the easiest to "pull out a chunk of material" because of the pdf formatting. Would prefer linking to different sections. I just have to say I am not a fan of the pdf format. As a hardcover book that is fine, however, I think that online users are expecting more functionality.
Also, there aren't any links to supplemental videos, articles or activities which is another aspect that needs improvement. I appreciated the section on cultural differences in end of life decisions in the final chapter. Also, the section on gay and lesbian elders was refreshing to see included and something that is not currently in a text I use. I liked that! Overall it is an ok option if you just essentially want an ebook, however as I stated above I think other OER resources have a lot more functionality than this text which is in a pdf format.
Not very user friendly and wouldn't be my first choice to use for my students. The research and experiment chapter was easily readable, attractive and enticing. Good, solid, well rounded text.
I will highly recommend this text. The content is accurate. A bit of bias is felt. However, due to readers biases the authors did a good job of masking biases with good solid research that was sited and created unbiased accurate content. Graphics and photos are helpful and are nicely relevant and certainly adds great clarity. The text easily blends the valid content and includes relevant updates that flow nicely.
Organized to easily create new updates. Epigenetics could have been more thoroughly covered. The text is written with excellent clarity with a simplification of jargon that makes material easy to grasp quickly. Terminology is consistent. Good modularity which is consistent throughout the text.
Subheadings are clear, easy to read and flow nicely to the eye. Self-referential is not present. Text is easily divisible into smaller reading sections that make it easy to grab topics out of their context. Modularity is also well balanced with the flow, fluidity and relatedness of previous subunits.
Especially good flow for online reading and easy page accessibility. It is easy to page up and down and clearly see the logical organization, again especially as an online pdf. The organization is excellent! The charts, images, photos and graphics are free of distractions regarding interface issues.
They are nicely placed and spaced throughout the text and fall appealingly on the page. Easy for the eye to track and to organize. Love the picture on the cover! Great start.
I will use this textbook the next opportunity I have to teach Human Development with the option of choosing which text to use!!!! Much of the content presented in the chapters is standard for most lifespan development textbooks.
I did not notice many errors, however there were places in the the textbook where the authors clearly presented their bias. For example, in chapter 4 when discussing childhood disciplinary practices the authors only discussed the harmful affects of corporal punishment; however, there are other scholars who have highlighted the benefit of such disciplinary practices especially among different cultural groups.
Both perspectives should have been presented. In some areas, the content was not up to date. For example, in chapter 10 which contains information about death and dying the authors only mentioned that in Oregon had laws which facilitate dignity in dying where patients can choose to die on their own terms.
However, since I believe there are three states California, Colorado, and Hawaii and Washington DC who all have passed these laws. This needs to be updated in the textbook. Also in chapter 8 the authors really did not discuss how women are delaying marriage and child-bearing along with the content related to marriage.
And the information on marriage could have included more topics related to cultural diversity because African American women tend to have the highest rates of being single than other ethnic groups. This was left out of the textbook. Another omission was in discussing maternal mortality. The authors only cited PID as the cause for infertility but PCOS and endometriosis are two other conditions which could contribute to infertility in women.
So the authors should update this too. The textbook was written in clear and uncomplicated way. The information presented in this textbook is succinct and brief which may make undergraduate students more apt to read this textbook.
It was very simple and easy to read. I really liked how the authors used Erickson's lifespan development across several chapters. I have used other lifespan development textbooks that followed this same format. This consistency allowed the reader to have easy access to the theory so that they could apply it to various stages of development. Each chapter had several subheadings and headings. The material was arranged in such a way that the content flowed very well.
The subheadings made sense and were relevant to the larger headings. I am not sure if this would be possible but it would be helpful if the reader could click onto the chapter and just pull it up.
Since the document is in a pdf format, the reader has to scroll up and down if they wanted to move back and forth in the textbook. This was a bit cumbersome. The authors made an effort to include cultural diversity and LGBT issues in the textbook. I certainly applaud their efforts, but in some ways things fell a little short in this area. For example, issues of adverse childhood experiences was not mentioned. Social issues like poverty, childhood homelessness and incarcerated parents were also omitted.
It seems as though the book could also benefit from including some sociological perspectives to deepen their attempts to include diversity. They also did not include all types of families in chapter 5.
They did not include trans-racial adoption or multicultural families where the parents are of different races. So the area of cultural diversity could be enhanced. Overall this textbook would be useful in a undergraduate course. The instructor would definitely have to supplement the materials to include content that is not only up to date but also includes more sociological perspectives in understanding lifespan development.
The book content matches what I currently teach. I did not find any big errors. They do discuss how the Attachment Q-Sort is a solid, contemporary way to measure attachment, but there are issues with this method. There are some topics that are not discussed enough e. There are several chapters that seem choppy i. Overall, I believe this textbook provides a good overview on human development.
The writing is well-suited for introductory students. Some of the more minor issues include: a There were some structure issues. I think some of this could be solved by including more clear headings or including an outline of the topics that would be covered in each chapter. Students may struggle with processing all of the information as it is presented. I want students to have good models for their own writing. There were several sections of the book that made claims about research findings without a single citation.
As examples, SES was linked to poor health and various other outcomes p. Also, the section on genetics Ch. This citation issue was not found in every chapter — some sections were better than others—but it happened enough to where I took notice. For example, the authors go into a lot of detail about the different types of memory in chapter 4 e.
Note that I am not saying that these issues do not have psychological components, but rather that that is not the way they are presented.
My biggest area of complaint in this area relates to temperament. Some of the more major issues include: a One of the things that bothers me about this textbook is that there are VERY few critical thinking questions that lead students to think deeply about the material.
Of course, these questions can be addressed in the classroom, but the book does not include any real aspects of active learning. The introduction sets up the field as scientific, but there is often little discussion about how the scientific method is essential to the findings presented.
Essentially, I want my students to better understand mechanisms. For example, topics like a when to introduce solid foods, b toilet training tips, c healthy eating, and d how to choose between preschool programs seem more suited to students who are taking a child development course in high school rather than students who are pursuing the scientific study of human development. I realize that this may have been the goal of the authors — perhaps they wanted their textbook to have flexibility for different types of courses.
For me, this takes away from the messages that I tell my students. Will I use this book in my course? In short, I have not decided yet. As noted above, the content that I normally expect my students to know except for temperament!
However, students are not going to be asked to use their critical thinking or scientific literacy skills in this book as much as other books.
The text is comparative to other texts in the field. However, disability inclusive issues across the lifespan would add for a more comprehensive outlook. Book is easy to follow and undergraduate level students will be able to comprehend the information included in the text. Images included are appropriate however more vibrant images would make for a more user-friendly book. Book is not culturally insensitive. However more references to other cultures would make for a more inclusive book.
The book is easy to follow and navigate. Information is consistent with for sale texts in the field. Overall, the text covers a wide array of topics within this subject, but the degree of depth to which these topics are covered varies. Not including career development is a disservice to the career development programming that has been done and continues to be done in K settings. The textbook covers many of the theories of human development, but does not introduce all of them in the first chapter.
Only a select few are covered in this introduction; other theories are introduced in later chapters in the point in the lifespan during which this theory becomes most salient. This is problematic, as the stages are not firmly restricted to these age bands. A review of all theories in the beginning would be helpful to the reader.
The book does not cover some theories e. Adverse childhood experiences ACEs are not covered at all, and the research has been around for 20 years. Any discussion of human development that does not include this research is incomplete. Other topics e. The discussion of grief models, especially refutations of the Kubler-Ross model, are excellent and represent modern research. The information presented in the text appears to be accurate, with the exception of a few areas that need to be updated with contemporary research.
The text does not include contemporary research on Adverse Childhood Experiences, neuroimaging, and neuropsychology. This contemporary research has enhanced or refuted many long-held theories and must be represented in any discussion of human development. The information presented is written clearly and in a way that is easy to understand and comprehend. The book appears to be presented in a consistent manner, with regard to terminology, framework, and layout. The authors were not consistent with the depth to which topics are covered; this may be an indication of the authors areas of interest and areas for development.
The book is chunked very well. The chapters are broken down in a rational manner and each chapter includes many smaller sections with headings. The book has a very good look. The table of contents is navigable, and there are links to sources embedded within. The graphics, tables, and charts are clear and readable. The authors use correct grammar and have edited the book well for mechanical and grammatical errors.
The book presents cultural information more completely in some areas and more incompletely in other areas. This is an area of the text that could use additional fine-tuning. Stereotype threat introduced in the section on age, although the research emerged from discussions of race and ethnicity. Based on the current edition of the text, I cannot say that I would use this book over a traditionally published text without having to provide many additional readings to supplement incomplete areas.
At best, there are chapters from this text I could see assigning to supplement additional readings. Content Accuracy rating: 5 The text content is mostly standard and accurate. Clarity rating: 4 The text is well written and is to understand; however, it could have better if the text is more clearly separated between subjects and theories Consistency rating: 4 The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework.
They also well included tables and images for each theory or framework Modularity rating: 5 I can say that the text has a high readability by including smaller reading sections. Interface rating: 4 The text included appropriate images but I would recommend to have more vibrant images.
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