This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of what is now known about psychological development, from birth to biological maturity, and it highlights how cultural, social, cognitive, neural, and molecular processes work together to yield human behavior and changes in human behavior.

This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of what is now known about psychological development, from birth to biological maturity, and it highlights how cultural, social, cognitive, neural, and molecular processes work together to yield human behavior and changes in human behavior.

Research in developmental psychology--which examines the history, origins, and causes of behavior and age-related changes in behavior--seeks to construct a complex, multi-level characterization of behavior as it unfolds in time across a range of time scales, from the milliseconds of reaction time to the days and weeks of childhood, the decades of the human lifespan, and even beyond, to multiple generations. Behavior, in this view, is embedded within what is essentially a dynamic system of relations extending deep within individuals. Thorough and engaging, this handbook explores the impact of this research on what is now known about psychological development, from birth to biological maturity, and it highlights the extent to which the most cutting-edge developmental science reflects a new kind of intellectual synthesis: one that reveals how cultural, social, cognitive, neural, and molecular processes work together to yield human behavior and changes in human behavior. With insightful contributions from more than 50 of the world's leading developmental scientists, these two volumes will serve as an influential and informed text for students and as an authoritative desk reference for years to come.

This volume synthesizes and integrates the broad literature in the subdisciplines of developmental psychology in such areas as biological development, behavioural genetics, visual development, auditory and musical development, object perception, cognitive development, memory, spatial development, categorisation, imitation, development of attention, reasoning, imagination, moral development, speech perception, syntax acquisition, and gesture.

The Oxford Handbook of Human Development and Culture provides a comprehensive synopsis of theory and research on human development, with every chapter drawing together findings from cultures around the world. This includes a focus on cultural diversity within nations, cultural change, and globalization. Expertly edited by Lene Arnett Jensen, the Handbook covers the entire lifespan from the prenatal period to old age. It delves deeply into topics such as the development of emotion, language, cognition, morality, creativity, and religion, as well as developmental contexts such as family, friends, civic institutions, school, media, and work. Written by an international group of eminent and cutting-edge experts, chapters showcase the burgeoning interdisciplinary approach to scholarship that bridges universal and cultural perspectives on human development. This "cultural-developmental approach" is a multifaceted, flexible, and dynamic way to conceptualize theory and research that is in step with the cultural and global realities of human development in the 21st century.

Comprehensive and authoritative this handbook pushes back the frontiers of the study of human development in one single volume. It makes an ideal reference for experienced individuals who wish to update their understanding and remain at the cutting edge of developmental psychology.

The essential reference for human development theory, updatedand reconceptualized The Handbook of Child Psychology and DevelopmentalScience, a four-volume reference, is the field-defining work towhich all others are compared. First published in 1946, and now inits Seventh Edition, the Handbook has long been consideredthe definitive guide to the field of developmental science. Volume 2: Cognitive Processes describes cognitivedevelopment as a relational phenomenon that can be studied only aspart of a larger whole of the person and context relational systemthat sustains it. In this volume, specific domains of cognitivedevelopment are contextualized with respect to biological processesand sociocultural contexts. Furthermore, key themes and issues(e.g., the importance of symbolic systems and social understanding)are threaded across multiple chapters, although every each chapteris focused on a different domain within cognitive development.Thus, both within and across chapters, the complexity andinterconnectivity of cognitive development are wellilluminated. Learn about the inextricable intertwining of perceptualdevelopment, motor development, emotional development, and braindevelopment Understand the complexity of cognitive development withoutmisleading simplification, reducing cognitive development to itsbiological substrates, or viewing it as a passive socializationprocess Discover how each portion of the developmental processcontributes to subsequent cognitive development Examine the multiple processes – such as categorizing,reasoning, thinking, decision making and judgment – thatcomprise cognition The scholarship within this volume and, as well, across the fourvolumes of this edition, illustrate that developmental science isin the midst of a very exciting period. There is a paradigm shiftthat involves increasingly greater understanding of how todescribe, explain, and optimize the course of human life fordiverse individuals living within diverse contexts. ThisHandbook is the definitive reference for educators,policy-makers, researchers, students, and practitioners in humandevelopment, psychology, sociology, anthropology, andneuroscience.