Social and Personality Development

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 Sixth 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.

An introductory text for undergraduates, stressing theory, theoretical eclecticism, research, and human development as a holistic process. Material is presented with a strong process and contextual orientation. This fourth edition offers increased attention to cultural and historical influences, the interplay of biological and environmental forces, the importance of good peer relations and friendships, and adolescence. The author teaches psychology at the University of Georgia. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Booknews

A comprehensive textbook that emphasizes the processes that underlie developmental change, and illustrates that people develop in different social contexts, which help determine who they become. Among the changes in this revised and updated edition (2nd ed., 1988) are expanded coverage of both contextual and biological influences on development and a heavier emphasis on adolescent development. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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.