Customer Reviews

Developing Person Through the Life Span (Loose Leaf) (Budget Books)

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This is one of the worst college textbooks I have used. I use it for my college Developmental Psychology class. Here are some of the major issues I have with this book.

- The accompanying study guide has many flaws and incorrect answers. Answers that contradict what is in the textbook, word for word.

- The author rambles on and on and on. This textbook is written as if it were her personal diary or stream on consciousness. This book is a good example of why psychology as a field struggles to be accepted as a "real science". There is very little fact in the book, and a lot of personal opinions of the authors and her colleagues.

- The few science-based subjects in the book are incorrect. For example, the definitions of Marasmus and Kwashiorkor completely conflict with my medical textbooks.

- The test banks provided to instructors is littered with problems. I have found many problems with the questions and answers that our instructor uses. Problems including poorly worded questions, and incorrect answer selections. I pointed these out to the instructor who said they are using a text bank of questions provided by the publisher/author!

If this were a 1st or 2nd edition of a textbook, I would be more compassionate and forgiving of the mistakes. But this is the 7th edition, and the book has been around for 27 years (1983)! The publisher and author have had a long time to correct these severe problems in the textbook, guide book, and test bank. Even the photos in the book are way out of date.

Please..... if you are an instructor, consider using a different textbook and different author and publisher.

I am taking a psychology class on line using this book. I was anxious for the class to start as I thought the subject material would be interesting. It is, and the book is well written and informative. However, now that the class is in its last 3 or 4 weeks, I'm getting a little tired.

Each section is covered in 3 chapters. For example, for adolescence you have a chapter about the biological changes, then about the cognitive changes, then about the psychological changes of that stage of life. After going through almost the whole book like that, I'm a little bored. Also - I don't know if all copies are affected, but for our class, which is using the paperback 7th edition, the publisher did not provide our instructor with an updated set of test questions. So the test questions we have been getting for all 6 tests we've had so far correspond to the 6th edition, not the 7th. This means that the test is supposed to cover chapters 20, 21, and 22, for instance, but it also contains questions from text as much as 100 pages past that!

I took an introductory Developmental Psychology class during 7 weeks of summer school. This book is really easy and interesting to read, so finishing the whole book for summer school did not put me to sleep at all. What was really helpful were the personal experiences and case studies the author adds to make the concepts more concrete. The "Observations" and "Response for" tabs on the margins of the book (ex: response for future nurses or teachers or parents) also fosters learning and understanding the material.

I was truly looking forward to my Lifespan and Development class until I looked at this book. Yes, it is helpful in that it has important terms on the margins. However, many times is does not into enough detail with a lot of psych issues. There are little blurbs or paragraphs about some things, but it mainly a repetiton of theories (Biosocial, Psychoanalytic, Behaviorist, Cognitive...) from Intro to Psych. It does not get into specifics about anything. The book can also be confusing in how it presents the information. I am alarmed by how very narrow minded the author(s) of the book are about psychology in different cultures. Most of the chapters have little (if nothing at all) about cultural differences in childrearing, dicipline technniques, nutrition, aging, etc. It is all based on American ideals of how kids should be raised and what it is to be normal. Where are the other viewpoints? I am very disappointed with this book and the class in general. I was looking forward to so much more.

I personally can't stand textbook prices and I always try and investigate if the "old" version will work for my class. This book is all but identical. Some of the chapters are re-worded but that is all. I would buy this over the "new" version aka a different picture on the front of the book.

Bought this for my daughter's psychology class since the school charges 3x this price. At first I was skeptical about buying a loose leaf book since the pages could go flying everywhere. But, it's easier for her to manage. She doesn't have to carry 10 lbs of books to class- just the chapter that they will be covering on that day. I wish they made more textbooks like this. Very ingenious. Same quality of paper and print as regular textbooks that have binding.

I'm always scepticle when using my bank card to make a purchase on the internet. But, I can count on amazon to conduct professional, fair business.A loose-leaf book was something that I didn't know what I was really purchasing because I never heard of loose-leaf before. I have found out that it means the pages are loose, and are not attatched to the spine of the book, so it is easy to take a page, or a chapter of pages out of the book to carry with me in a binder or folder. It is 99% lighter in weight than having to carry a whole book. From now on I will look to purchase loose-leaf textbook from amazon or other providers, rather than having to lug around the traditional bulky book. It not only saves you energy, but can also save time when it comes to looking for what you really need to study out of the book.

This book was well-written and entertaining. I enjoyed the author's personal information throughout the book.

I took this class at an undergraduate level in a five week summer course online. For an online self-guided learning experience, this was an excellent textbook. It was easy and interesting to read. It had a lot of good information and good life applications and practical examples to help solidify the concepts. The book was very well organized and it was easy to find the information that you were looking for. I also bought the study guide with it which was a great help to review for tests.

I ordered a text book for my psy class and specified I wanted express delivery. Paid double the shipping so I could get my book in 2-3 days. When I finally received the book 5 days later, the seller (Buy Mo Books) had sent the wrong edition. I reviewed my order to make sure it was not my error. Sure enough, I ordered the correct edition but Buy Mo Books sent me an older version.