Annotated Bibliography
The following sources offer good introductions to important concepts of developmental psychology:
Bornstein, M.H. & Lamb, M.E. (1992). Developmental Psychology: An Advanced Textbook. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. As its title indicates, the chapters in this book present more advanced treatments of topics than do the introductory books in this bibliography. Nevertheless, readers interested in more detailed information on specific topics will find it to be helpful.Comer, J.P. & Poussaint, A.F. (1992). Raising Black Children. New York: Penguin Books. Written in a question-and-answer format, this book focuses on general topics of raising children as well as special issues faced by African-American families.
Plomin, R. (1990). Nature and Nurture: An Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. This book gives a good presentation of how genes and heredity influence human development. A shorter version, focusing more specifically on psychological aspects, can be found in Plomin (1989).
Sroufe, L.A., Cooper, R.G., & DeHart, G.B. (1992). Child Development: Its Nature and Course (2nd Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. This book provides an excellent introduction to the principles and theories of child development. It is comprehensive yet readable.
Shantz, C.U. & Hartup, W.W. (1992). Conflict in Child and Adolescent Development. New York: Cambridge University Press. Conflict is not always a negative, destructive event. In this book several authors summarize research that shows that conflict has many positive effects in the development of individuals and their interpersonal relationships. In addition, several chapters deal with ways to deal with less desirable forms of conflict.
The following sources offer good introductions to ecological perspectives on human development. This is a rapidly expanding approach to studying development of the individual in his or her natural environment.
Garbarino, J. (1992). Children and Families in the Social Environment (2nd Ed.). New York: Aldine de Gruyer. The author approaches the development of the child from the perspective that to understand the characteristics of individual development, children must be examined in relation to their families, and families must be examined in relation to their culture and community.Bronfenbrenner, U. (1989). Ecological systems theory. Annals of Child Development, 6, 187-249. This chapter presents a thorough introduction to the ecological systems approach of studying human development.
The following sources provide good introductions to important topics of child development:
Walker, C.E. & Roberts, M.C. (Eds.) (1992). Handbook of Clinical Child Psychology (2nd Ed.). A resource for persons in the helping professions, this book relates research to practice with regard to numerous problems children and adolescents are likely to encounter.
The following sources provide good introductions to important topics of adolescent development:
Cobb, N.J. (1992). Adolescence: Continuity, Change, and Diversity. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. This book provides an up-to-date survey of the research findings and theories of adolescent development and shows how this information can be applied to help adolescents meet the challenges they face as they grow into adulthood. In addition to focusing on family life and developmental issues, it includes chapters on friendship, school life, and career decision making.Feldman, S.S. & Elliott, G.R. (Eds.). (1990). At the Threshold: The Developing Adolescent. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. This comprehensive book contains chapters by an interdisciplinary group of highly respected authors on a wide range of topics dealing with adolescence.
The following sources offer good introductions to important concepts of adult development, a topic that is often neglected in books on developmental or educational psychology:
Stevens-Long, J. & Commons, M.L. (1992). Adult Life: Developmental Processes (4th Ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. This book discusses physical, cognitive, social, and psychological processes specific to and across periods of adult development.Merriam, S.B. & Cafferella, R.S. (1991). Learning in Adulthood. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
The following sources will help you understand and apply the theories of Piaget and provide a basis for expanding your understanding of Piagetian principles:
Demetriou, A. (1988). The Neo-Piagetian Theories of Cognitive Development: Toward an Integration. New York: North-Holland. Neo-Piagetians are developmental theorists who have moved beyond Piaget - often by integrating Piaget's theories with current information processing theories. This book summarizes and integrates several of these neo-Piagetian theories.
Voyat, G.E. (1982). Piaget Systematized. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. This book offers an organized presentation of more than 150 Piagetian tasks. It is a useful source to help educators diagnose the level of development of children and to decide what types of cognitive interventions would be appropriate.
Wadsworth, B.J. (1989). Piaget's Theory of Cognitive and Affective Development. (4th Ed.) New York: Longman. This is an extremely clear and accurate presentation of Piaget's major principles. If you have a child under the age of six, you will increase your understanding of both your child and Piaget by reading this book. Piaget's stimulus to developing his theory was the observation of his own children. You can best learn about his theory by following his example.
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