Читать книгу Lifespan Development - Tara L. Kuther - Страница 20

I approached writing the second edition of Lifespan Development: Lives in Context with three goals:

1 Increase the coverage of context, including ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity.I addressed this goal by adding findings and sections covering contextual and cultural influences throughout each chapter. For example, the Cultural Influences on Development feature in each chapter speaks to the role of cultural factors in development.

2 Update the text to include the most current research to date.Our knowledge of human development is rapidly expanding. My goal was to select, highlight, and integrate cutting-edge research findings with existing theory and research. The second edition includes over 1,400 references published since 2016, including nearly 900 published in 2017 and 2018.

3 Streamline the text.My goal for this second edition was to paradoxically increase coverage of current research while increasing concision. This goal is influenced by my observations of my own students’ use of this text. I approached this goal by carefully considering each section of each chapter and painstakingly paring down the verbiage and excess detail while retaining and enhancing the scientific basis for conclusions. As a result, each chapter is shorter with streamlined, but not reduced, coverage of the major findings in developmental science. I have also sharpened the chapter learning objectives and summaries.

Below I list the major revisions reflected in this second edition of Lifespan Development: Lives in Context. It is my hope that this volume will improve instructors’ and students’ experiences in and out of class—and that students will be inspired to apply the findings of developmental science to their lives.