The success of this best-selling text lies in the author's belief that a good text talks with, rather than at, its readers. Shaffer does an extraordinary job of anticipating students' interests, questions, and concerns while treating them as active participants in the process of learning about social and personality development. The Fifth edition of SOCIAL AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT features clearly written, current coverage of social and personality development that aids students in discovering the causes, processes, and complexities that underlie developmental change. Students learn why biological and environmental factors, contextual factors such as cross-cultural, familial, neighborhood, school, and peer-group influences cause change in children. Shaffer also explores the approaches that researchers use to test their theories and answer important questions about developing children and adolescents. This book's effective coverage of field research stands out from other texts not only for its accuracy and currency, but because Shaffer consistently juxtaposes classic research with the latest breakthroughs in a way that helps students appreciate how knowledge builds on earlier findings. This edition features a much stronger emphasis on cultural influences on development.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
David Shaffer is a professor of psychology, chair of the Social Psychology program, and past chair of the Life-Span Developmental Psychology program at the University of Georgia, where he has taught courses in human development to graduate and undergraduate students for the past 30 years. His many research articles have concerned such topics as altruism, attitudes and persuasion, moral development, sex roles and social behavior, self-disclosure, and social psychology and the law. He has also served as associate editor for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Bulletin, and Journal of Personality. In 1990, Dr. Shaffer received the Josiah Meigs award for Excellence in Instruction, the University of Georgia's highest instructional honor.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
guided by Bronfenbrenner,
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This review is from: Social and Personality Development (with InfoTrac ) (Hardcover)
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent read!!!,
This review is from: Social and Personality Development (with InfoTrac ) (Hardcover)
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!
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unsatisfied,
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This review is from: Social and Personality Development (with InfoTrac ) (Hardcover)
Seller was very uncooperative when I attempted to contact them about the false book they were advertising. Now I'm stuck with a book I didn't want. I Do NOT recommend and will NOT be doing business with them ever again.
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