Looking Forward Through the Life Span

This best-selling text has been fully updated to include current international and Australian research and data. The third edition has been structurally amended to include a clear set of organizing principles through the life span sequence utilizing psychological, developmental and contextual factors. These are designed to make the content more accessible for beginners to tertiary study. The themes encourage the reader to think about what development is and by what methods it is studied, about the interconnectedness of psychological processes and about the influences of heredity, environment, gender, culture and historical circumstances as shapers of development. These themes are introduced in Chapters 1 and 2 and appear as inter-linkages and summaries throughout the remainder of the book. The text continues to be a comprehensive introduction to the field of developmental psychology and is organized chronologically.