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This popular textbook has long been acclaimed for its authoritative chronological exploration of how the lives of children are shaped by biological and cultural factors. Lead author Cynthia Lightfoot builds on the legacy of original authors Michael and Sheila Cole, offering a lively, engaging, and always accessible examination of child development as a process involving the whole child within multiple, mutually influencing contexts.
Throughout, the emphasis is on how the interaction of biology and culture contributes both to the universal pathways of development shared by all children and to the diverse developmental patterns that unfold in the lives of individual children. This is an accessible introduction to Developmental Psychology for students taking courses that focus on child and adolescent development.

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1. The Study of Human Development

Part I In the Beginning 2. Biocultural Foundations 3. Prenatal Development and Birth

Part II Infancy 4. The First Three Months 5. Physical and Cognitive Development in the First Two Years 6. Emotional and Social Development during Infancy

Part III Early Childhood 7. Language Acquisition 8. Physical and Cognitive Development of Early Childhood 9. Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood 10. Contexts of Development

Part IV Middle Childhood 11. Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood 12. School as a Context for Development 13. Social and Emotional Developments in Middle Childhood

Part V Adolescence 14. Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence 15. Social and Emotional Development during Adolescence

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Cynthia Lightfoot is Professor and Head of Human Development and Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, Brandywine. Her published works focus on the sociocultural contexts of child and adolescent development, most recently, on teen pregnancy.
Michael Cole is an all-University of California Professor of Psychology, Communication, and Human Development. His home base is the University of California, San Diego, where he is the director of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition.

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