Social and Personality Development

by David R. Shaffer

Book Overview

The highly respected first edition with its strong research base and clear exposition is thoroughly updated to include new coverage of biological theories and the recent attribution and social... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0495600385
• ISBN13: 9780495600381
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Cengage Learning
• Length: 622 Pages
• Weight: 3.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.5" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Book Review

The book was purchased for a class and was in excellent condition as well as very informative and helpful.

excellent read!!!

As a psychology major I have read many psychology books. This is by far the best book I have ever read. It is an easy read, it is simple and direct when discussing the different theories. I had the "a-ha" moment while reading this book and all the theories and authors made sense to me. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to psychology, child development, education, and sociology. Parents would find this book educational. As a parent of three pre-teen boys I was amazed at the information that I could have used during their younger developmental years, but I learned so much that will help me in the future. This is a keeper!!! I usualy sell my books back, but not this one!

guided by Bronfenbrenner

As an instructor, I found this to be an excellent text. In particular, I appreciated the repeated incorporation of cross-cultural research. This text answers the call for incorporating diversity across the curriculum. Repeated inclusion of cross-cultural similarities and differences, combined with repeated discussions of the interconnections of multiple variables, helps students move away from a "one-size fits all" approach and egocentric thinking. By the end of the semester, when students were presented with a hypothetical problem scenario to resolve, they quickly outlined a list of additional details they would need to know, offering how each variable (parenting style, ethnicity, location of residence, violence within family, etc.) would alter the "goodness of fit" of their intervention. Also, the author does not shy away from presenting research evidence that is sometimes contradictory or inconclusive, which provides an excellent opportunity for in-class discussions of the reality of research and how, as a field, we address these issues. The only drawback is the amount of information sometimes overwhelmed students, so I found it necessary to focus their reading on certain sections of each chapter - however this can also be viewed as strength, since it allowed me to "customize" my course to some extent.

Social and Personality Development

This was a brand new book and I was pleased with the book however it took longer than expected to receive.