Handbook Of Child Psychology And Developmental Science, 7E Volume 2: Cognitive Processes

The industry-leading reference on cognitive development, updated and reconfigured

Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science is the field-defining work to which all others are compared. Representing the state-of-the-art in developmental science, this edition has been completely re-conceptualized to reflect significant advances in the field. Volume Two: Cognitive Processes describes the gradual development of cognitive abilities throughout the stages of childhood and growth. Theory, cultural concerns, and applications are presented together to provide a quick overview of the subfield, and each succinct chapter provides an authoritative survey of the current best knowledge in the field, a review of the issues central to the discipline, and a discussion of where the field is headed. Readers will find explanations of the cognitive stages, social cognition, atypical cognitive development, and the biological activity underpinning it all.

First published in 1931, A Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science has long been considered the definitive guide to the field of child development. Part of a four-volume reference, this book emphasizes cognitive development as explained by experts in the field.

• Learn what happens in the brain at each stage of development
• Understand how children gradually acquire essential cognitive skills
• Discover how each developmental stage contributes to overall cognitive ability

• Examine the ways in which culture and the media influence cognitive development

This essential guide is the ultimate reference for educators, policy-makers, researchers, students, and practitioners in human development, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and neuroscience. The collaboration between known experts and rising stars, providing complete, detailed guidance on every aspect of child development is what makes Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science a must-read for anyone in the field.

The chapters of volume 2 take a relational stance, that is, that cognitive development is a relational phenomenon that can be studied only as part of a larger whole that sustains it. The study of cognitive development provides different points of view from which to view phenomena (biological, social), but the resulting view cannot be taken as absolute. It must take into account and be compatible with views seen from different vantage points (that is, looking out from, rather than towards biological and social groundings). And each of these views must, in the end, be compatible with the idea that the child is an active agent who, through his or her embodied actions in the world, contributes to his or her own development . Both within and across chapters, the complexity and interconnectivity of cognitive development are well illuminated.

Editor-in-Chief
Richard M. Lerner, PhD is Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science at the Eliot-Pearson Department at Tufts University. He is the author of many publications, including Pathways to Positive Development about Diverse Youth and New Directions for Youth Development: Theory, Practice, and Research (Jossey-Bass). Dr Lerner is also a past editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and The Handbook of Life-Span Development (Wiley).