A best selling, topically organized child development text, Berk's Child Development is relied on in classrooms worldwide for its clear, engaging writing style, exceptional cross-cultural and multi-cultural focus, rich examples, and long standing commitment to presenting the most up to date scholarship while also offering students research based, practical applications that they can relate to their personal and professional lives.
Berk takes an integrated approach to presenting development in the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social domains; emphasizes the complex interchanges between heredity and environment; and provides exceptional attention to culture. Laura Berk, renowned professor and researcher, presents the latest theories and findings in the field to students in a manageable and relevant way. Berk's signature storytelling style invites students to actively learn beside the text's "characters," who experience real issues in development, including physical, cognitive, and peer challenges, as well as parenting and educational concerns.
Berk also helps students connect their learning to their personal and professional areas of interest. Her voice comes through when speaking directly about issues students will face in their future pursuits as parents, educators, heath care providers, social workers, and researchers. As members of a global and diverse human community, students are called on to intelligently approach the responsibility of understanding and responding to the needs and concerns of children.
While carefully considering the complexities of child development, Berk presents classic and emerging theories in an especially clear, engaging writing style, with a multitude of research based, real world, and cross-cultural examples. Strengthening the connections among developmental domains and among theory, research, and applications, this edition's extensive revision brings forth the most recent scholarship, representing the changing field of child development.
Part 1 Theory and Research in Child Development
Chapter 1 History, Theory, and Applied Directions
Chapter 2 Research Strategies
Part 2 Foundations of Development
Chapter 3 Biological Foundations, Prenatal Development, and Birth
Chapter 4 Infancy: Early Learning, Motor Skills, and Perceptual Capacities
Chapter 5 Physical Growth
Part 3 Cognitive and Language Development
Chapter 6 Cognitive Development: Piagetian, Core Knowledge, and Vygotskian Perspectives
Chapter 7 Cognitive Development: An Information-Processing Perspective
Chapter 8 Intelligence
Chapter 9 Language Development
Part 4 Personality and Social Development
Chapter 10 Emotional Development
Chapter 11 Self and Social Understanding
Chapter 12 Moral Development
Chapter 13 Development of Sex Differences and Gender Roles
Part 5 Contexts for Development
Chapter 14 The Family
Chapter 15 Peers, Media, and Schooling