Lives Across Cultures: Cross-Cultural Human Development

by Harry W. Gardiner, Corinne Kosmitzki

This classic textbook brings a cross-cultural dimension to the study of human development across the lifespan. It focuses on major developmental topics and provides a global and multicultural perspective by introducing the reader to contemporary and classical research.*Utilizes a cross-cultural perspective to provide opportunities to expand awareness and sensitivity to global similarities and differences in human development thereby reducing ethnocentric thinking. *Emphasizes cultural-ecological and developmental contextual models that recognize bi-directional or reciprocal influences of individuals and their surrounding environments. Particular attention is given to Bronfenbrenners ecological systems approach and Supers and Harkness developmental niche concept. *Discusses chronological-within-topics issues. Cross-cultural research is organized chronologically to demonstrate how behavioral processes evolve and change as individuals in a variety of cultures pass from infancy and childhood through adolescence and into adulthood and old age. *Opens each chapter with vignettes of two individuals from different geographical areas of the world who illustrate one or more of the behaviors described in the chapter. *Features recurring themes throughout each chapter, continually woven into the narrative, to provide a comprehensive and cohesive understanding of development. *Contains the most up-to-date examples of cross-cultural research findings. *Concludes each chapter with sections entitled "Things To Do and Think About" which consist of thought-provoking questions and simple projects to encourage readers to engage in active observation of developmental principles, frequently from a cross-cultural perspective. *Includes annotated recommendations for further reading. The books suggested are carefully selected for their ability to expand on topics covered in each chapter as well as for their interesting and often amusing writing style.

Genres: Psychology, Cultural, Nonfiction

330 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Alejandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting to learn about the human development but not that interesting.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This textbook on human development and culture was all over the place. Although it's the fourth edition, it still had some typographical errors and it had parenthetical asides that got on my last nerve such as, "I bet you never thought blah, blah, blah!" This is a graduate level text, please spare me the comments! There's something to be said for readability, but I'd like something a little more academic. I want to have to work a little and draw my own conclusions. It also gave a lot of information too broadly. Granted, given the broad scope, there is only so much the authors can include, but show me some numbers every now and then. This book pretty much sucked.

[Ishanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, this lovely book is a text book. But if you're interested in Cultural Anthropology, this one is highly recommended as it's an easy read. The author makes every aspect simple and very clear. The case studies actually pulled me in enough to want to find out more regarding human behavior. I highly recommend to my fellow nerds out there :)

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it doesn't go very in depth into the topics, it provides a great overview of the most important topics and how they play out in different cultures at different life stages. The great references for further reading make it worth it because you have plenty of places to start for further research on each of the topics covered.

[Sammie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it, it was good. I feel that I have a better understanding of not only the American culture, but other cultures as well.