Children and Their Development, Fourth Canadian edition, provides a solid, research-oriented overview of child-development science. Organized topically and in modules, this text focuses on research and theory while making the material accessible for students through effective pedagogy. It uses fundamental developmental issues as a foundation for integrating studies and for demonstrating how complementary research methods work together. It also demonstrates that the results of child-development research can be used to enhance the lives of children and their families.
Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Kail has been a faculty member in Purdue's Department of Psychological Sciences since 1979. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.
Kail has 65 publications in refereed journals, and he has written five textbooks. He is editor of Psychological Science and the incoming editor of Child Development Perspectives. Previously he served as editor of Advances in Child Development and Behavior and the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Alternative Names Kail, Robert, 1950- Kail, Robert V. Kail, Robert V., Jr.
Read the 2nd Canadian Edition for a Child Psychology university course. I found this was a good text, easy to read, lots of informative studies and examples.
Bought it during university for class (5th edition), but didn't really read that much at the time. Having read it now, it's very well-explained and overall a good textbook, but some of the information has become outdated, as it's been just over a decade since I purchased it. Still, some valuable insights and historically very interesting.
I've never actually enjoyed a textbook before, but this one was great. It was easy to understand, had clearly explained key topics, and great content. This was a wonderful textbook.
The book goes at great lengths to reassure the reader of the medieval observations and reinforces the given stereotypes:
"Because boys and men are more aggressive in virtually all cultures and because males in nonhuman species are also more aggressive, scientists are convinced that biology contributes heavily to this gender difference. Aggressive behavior has been linked to androgens, hormones secreted by the testes. Androgens do not lead to aggression directly."