Invitation to the Life Span by Kathleen Stassen Berger - Fourth Edition, 2019 from Macmillan Student Store
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Invitation to the Life Span

Fourth Edition ©2019 Kathleen Stassen Berger

Edition after edition, Kathleen Stassen Berger’s bestselling textbooks connect students to the field of developmental psychology, in an engaging, accessible, culturally inclusive way. Berger’s Invitation to the Life Span does this in just 15 concise chapters and an epilogue, in a presentati...
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Invitation to the Life Span by Kathleen Stassen Berger - Fourth Edition, 2019 from Macmillan Student Store

Engaging, comprehensive, authoritative –the gold standard for lifespan development

Edition after edition, Kathleen Stassen Berger’s bestselling textbooks connect students to the field of developmental psychology, in an engaging, accessible, culturally inclusive way. Berger’s Invitation to the Life Span does this in just 15 concise chapters and an epilogue, in a presentation that meets the challenges of exploring the breadth of the life span in a single term.
The new edition of Invitation to the Life Span incorporates a wide range of new research, especially in fast-moving areas such as brain development and psychopathology, while taking advantage of innovative new tools for media-centered teaching and learning.
But throughout, as always, the signature voice of Kathleen Berger ties it all together, with relatable explanations of scientific content, wide ranging cultural examples, and skill-building tools for sharper observation and critical thinking.

Features

Personal and engaging writing
Kathleen Berger’s voice—the voice of an experienced teacher, researcher, parent and grandparent—makes the concepts and research that drive developmental psychology clear, compelling, and easy to grasp by relating them to the reader’s personal experiences.

15-Chapter Format
The carefully considered table of contents covers the essentials for the course in a format that fits easily in a one-term syllabus.

Cutting-Edge Research
Coverage includes new developments in late-breaking research areas from epigenetics to end-of-life care. Special emphasis is on brain development, culture, genetics, and emotional development. Berger includes this research in a way your students will understand and be able to apply in their future careers.

Attention to Cultural Diversity
Berger highlights cultural differences and universals and their impact on the values and customs that shape individual development and makes culture an enlightening, unifying theme for the text.

Critical Thinking and Applications-Based Pedagogy
From chapter opening stories, the “A View From Science,” “A Case to Study,” and “Opposing Perspectives” features, to the questions presented in "Observation Quizzes," “Especially For,” and “Think Critically” marginalia, to the “Visualizing Development” infographics, Berger’s pedagogy has students thinking about the real implications—for themselves and for the world at large—of the material they are learning.

Infographics
This feature maps out the key ideas and applications of each chapter graphically, making it easier for visually-oriented learners to summarize and retain the most important material.

New to This Edition

Hundreds of New Research Citations

  • As always, Kathleen Berger offers a thoroughly contemporary view of lifespan development, and where it’s heading. Coverage includes new discussions of:
  • Environmental hazards and teratogens such as lead and Zika virus
  • Childhood obesity and nutritional deficiencies
  • Body dissatisfaction among teenagers
  • e-Cigarette use among teens and emerging adults
  • Immunizations and the impact of unvaccinated children on public health
  • Impact of screen time on development of very young children and infants
  • Technology in adolescence, including new discussions on sexting, cyberbullying, and other forms of online harassment
  • The experience of immigration during childhood
  • Updated data, theories, and DSM 5 criteria on common psychological disorders of childhood and adolescence including autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and specific learning disorders
  • U.S. secondary education and graduation rates
  • Sexual orientation and gender identity
  • Changing attitudes and behaviors regarding cohabitation and premarital sex
  • Religious affiliation and participation in emerging adulthood
  • International trends in college attendance and career selection
  • Friendship in emerging adulthood and beyond
  • Variations in sexuality and reproduction during adulthood
  • The opioid epidemic in the United States
  • Correlation between income and health
  • Employment among adults in middle and late adulthood
  • Demographic shift in various nations
  • Neurocognitive disorders, including CTE, Alzheimer’s, and major NCD (dementia)
  • Relationship dynamics between grandparents and their adult children
  • Choices in dying and the importance of a “good death”

Integrated Assessment Throughout the Book
The new edition provides updated What Will You Know? questions for each chapter and What Have You Learned? questions after every chapter section. These assessments are designed to make it clear to students exactly what their learning objectives are and what they need to learn to meet their career goals.

Inside the Brain
Available in several of the book’s chapters, this new feature takes students to the frontiers of contemporary neuroscience research, such exploring topics as the intricacies of prenatal and infant brain development, brain specialization and speech development, brain maturation and emotional development, and neuronal growth during adulthood.

“This book contains great special topic boxes that encourage student and classroom discussion. It is clearly written in such a way that students can relate to the material being taught. The examples given correspond to the photographs included which correspond to the key terms that the students need to know in order to be successful in the class.”
– Andrea Fillip, College of the Mainland

“Invitation to the Life Span is an easy to read and understand comprehensive account of development from conception to death - the gold standard for textbooks on this topic.” 
– Ty Abernathy, Mississippi State University

“I usually tell other professors about this textbook and how it does a really good job in delivering some of the most important concepts to students about human development in only 15 chapters! I also mention that the book comes with a lot of helpful tools and resources for students and for instructors who might be looking for different ways to enhance student learning."
–  Valerie Neeley, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

“Berger’s Introduction to the Lifespan is a well-written and comprehensive look at human development - physical, cognitive, emotional and social — across the entire life time. The text integrates science across subfields and helps students develop a deep understanding of how body, mind and the social world are interrelated for each unique person. Through examples, questions and data, readers are encouraged to challenge their own biases and assumptions about development. I cannot imagine not using this text.”
– Lori Puterbaugh, St. Petersburg College-Clearwater

Digital Options

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Launchpad

Get the e-book, do assignments, take quizzes, prepare for exams and more, to help you achieve success in class.

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Read & Practice

Achieve Read & Practice is the marriage of our LearningCurve adaptive quizzing and our mobile, accessible e-book, in one easy-to-use and affordable product.

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E-book

Read online (or offline) with all the highlighting and notetaking tools you need to be successful in this course.

Table of Contents

1. The Science of Development
2. From Conception to Birth
3. The First Two Years: Body and Mind
4. The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
5. Early Childhood: Body and Mind
6. Early Childhood: Psychosocial Development
7: Middle Childhood: Body and Mind
8: Middle Childhood: Psychosocial Development
9: Adolescence: Body and Mind
10: Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
11: Emerging Adulthood: Body, Mind, and Social World
12: Adulthood: Body and Mind
13: Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
14: Late Adulthood: Body and Mind
15: Late Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Epilogue: Death and Dying

Kathleen Stassen Berger

Kathleen Stassen Berger received her undergraduate education at Stanford University and Radcliffe College, earned an M.A.T. from Harvard University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Yeshiva University. Her broad experience as an educator includes directing a preschool, serving as chair of philosophy at the United Nations International School, teaching child and adolescent development to graduate students at Fordham University and undergraduates at Montclair State University in New Jersey and at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, as well as teaching social psychology to inmates at Sing Sing Prison. Throughout most of her professional career, Berger has worked at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York, first as an adjunct and for the past two decades as a full professor. She has taught introduction to psychology, child and adolescent development, adulthood and aging, social psychology, abnormal psychology, and human motivation. Her students—who come from many ethnic, economic, and educational backgrounds and who have a wide range of ages and interests—consistently honor her with the highest teaching evaluations.

Berger is also the author of The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence and Invitation to the Life Span. Her developmental texts are currently being used at more than 700 colleges and universities worldwide and are available in Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese, as well as English. Her research interests include adolescent identity, immigration, and bullying, and she has published many articles on developmental topics in the Wiley Encyclopedia of Psychology and in publications of the American Association for Higher Education and the National Education Association for Higher Education. She continues teaching and learning as her four daughters and three grandsons continue to develop, as she interacts with students every semester, and as she revises each edition of her books.

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Kathleen Stassen Berger | Fourth Edition | ©2019 | ISBN:9781319211424

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