Includes reference, glossary and index.

Contents: Life-span psychology: Individuality and universality -- The span of life -- Developmental principles -- Basic processes related to efficient living -- views of human development -- Determinants of development: Factors influencing development -- Physiological determinants -- Environmental determinants -- Psychodynamic determinants -- Metaphysical determinants -- Prenatal development: Life begins -- Pregnancy -- Prenatal development and behavior -- Pregnancy and family -- Termination of pregnancy -- Birth of the baby: Birth process -- Biomedical influences on prenatal development -- Conditions at birth affecting development -- Unwed parents -- Infant motor and cognitive development: The newborn infant -- Sudden infant death syndrome(SIDS) -- Motor development during infancy -- Neural development of cognition -- Development of the perceptual process -- Psychosocial development in infancy: Infant speech and language -- Emotional and social development -- Cross-cultural diversity -- Infant care -- Nature and origins of personality -- Early childhood(3 to 5 years of age): Physical characteristics and motor skills -- Perceptual-motor processes for learning -- Piaget: Preoperational stage -- Preschool language development -- Psychosocial development -- Organization of personality -- Concepts of morality -- Middle Childhood(6 to 8 years of age): Physical development -- Social growth -- Intelligence, language, and thought -- Personality, self-concept, and sex role -- The one-parent family -- Emotional and moral development -- Late childhood(9 to 11 years of age): Physical growth and motor development -- Sexual awareness and sex information -- Social behavior -- Birth order and development -- Cognitive development and school learning -- Affective and moral development -- Puberty and early adolescence(12 to 114 years of age): Pubertal and physical development -- Personal characteristics -- Social development -- Teen culture and interests -- Personal problems and concerns -- Awakening of reasoning -- Erikson: ego identity -- Middle and later adolescence(15 to 18 years of age): Adolescence and the coming of age -- Physical growth and development -- Achieving independence from home -- Establishing heterosexual relationships -- Love relationships -- Childbearing in adolescence -- Maturing intellectual operations -- Emotionality -- Need for a value judgment system -- Problems of middle adolescence -- Adolescence in disadvantaged environment -- The youth market -- Emerging adulthood, the awakening years: The age level -- Developmental self -- Identity and self-image -- Moral and religious uncertainty -- Kohlberg: moral development -- Youth and society -- A final word -- Early adulthood, The developing years: Early adulthood -- Maturity and the early adult -- Getting married -- Being married -- Choice to stay single -- Middle adulthood, the years of stability: The age level -- The middle years -- The change of life -- Later adulthood, the aged and aging: The age level -- Developmental aging -- Health maintenance -- Aging and cognitive abilities -- Later adulthood, social and personal: Demography of old age -- Psychological changes -- Retirement -- Social life changes -- Housing and living arrangements -- Dying and death.