Lives Across Cultures, 4/E
Harry W. Gardiner, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
Corinne Kosmitzki, University of California, Berkeley

ISBN-10: 0205494757
ISBN-13: 9780205494750

Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
Copyright: 2008
Format: Paper; 384 pp
Published: 04/12/2007

Suggested retail price: $67.00
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The fourth edition of this market-leading cross-cultural human development text offers an interdisciplinary exploration of major developmental topics across the lifespan. Presented in a chronological-within-topics approach, this text focuses on cultural contexts throughout the world while emphasizing links between theory, research and practical applications.  

  • Links to real world: Basic principles and research findings are linked to practical, everyday events to help readers cultivate a global and multicultural perspective on behavior and gain an improved understanding of and appreciation for development as it takes place in diverse cultural settings.
  • Multi-disciplinary: This text integrates and synthesizes viewpoints and perspectives from a variety of disciplines including psychology, anthropology, sociology, and the health sciences.
  • Pedagogy includes:
    • Opening vignettes: Chapters open with vignettes of two individuals from different geographical areas of the world who illustrate behaviors described in the chapter.
    • Recurring themes throughout each chapter help students to develop a comprehensive and cohesive understanding of development.
    • Key ideas are placed in bold type the first time they appear and are immediately defined with culturally relevant examples.
    • Further readings: Each chapter closes with an annotated listing of recommendations for further reading. The suggested books, articles, and websites have been selected for their ability to expand on topics covered in each chapter as well as for their interesting and often amusing writing style.
    • The Instructor's Manual contains newly revised chapter outlines and objectives, lecture topics, student activities, film and video suggestions, and multiple choice and essay test items.

  • Foreword:  Often, readers do not pay attention to a book’s Foreword. However, this highly original, creative, and engaging introduction should not be missed. This Foreword opens with a photograph of the hands of three week old Alena, representing the “Alpha” or beginning of life, and closes with a photograph of the hands of 102 year old Khun Mae Kasorn, representing the “Omega” or end of a long and productive life. Separated by more than a century in age and by very different cultures thousands of miles apart, Alena and Khun Mae Kasorn visually and literally symbolize two unique examples of the ongoing development of millions of “lives across cultures.”
  • Developmental Analysis: New to this edition is a series of nine Developmental Analysis boxes appearing in Chapters 2-10. Written in the first person, they tell the life of Matilda “Maddi” Skelton, who engaging applies important concepts to her own development over the lifespan. This pedagogical feature helps to clarify the material and provide continuity across chapters. It also encourages readers to write their own developmental analyses for a better understanding of how they became the person they are today.
  • New material: Chapter 1 includes an expanded discussion of culture and its definitions. In Chapter 4 there is an introduction to the Human Genome Project and an extensive discussion of the influences and effects of genes on human development and behavior. New material on conceptions of the self, self-efficacy, and contextual and cultural influences on identity development have been added to Chapter 6 along with a new section on the Big Five personality traits. The focus of Chapter 7 is now on issues of gender and sexuality with new material on gender role socialization.  The latest research on family and peer influences on social behavior has been added to Chapter 8. Chapter 9 includes new material on mate selection, fathering research, and issues related to being a grandparent. Expanded health care coverage is reflected in Chapter 10 along with new sections of illness, stress and coping, ecological influences on early coping behavior, acculturation and adaptation, and coping with chronic illness in old age.
  • Update and expansion on the future of the field: Chapter 11 has been revised and updated to reflect some of the newest suggestions and speculations on thoughts and challenges for the design of future research in cross-cultural human development.
  • Study Questions: A series of questions for readers to reflect upon regardingconcepts, facts, and other material have been added at the end of each chapter.
  • New and expanded photo program: This edition includes a number of new culturally-relevant photos allowing readers to "see" cross-cultural behavior as it "happens," and thereby better understand it.
  • Updated and expanded references: This edition contains more than 120 new references, many representing important work published between 2004 and 2007.

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is Cross-Cultural Human Development?

Cross-Cultural Human Development and the Other Social Sciences

Some Important Themes

A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Goals for the Field

An Ecological Model

The Developmental Niche

A Developmental Orientation

A Chronological-Within-Topics Approach

Practical Applications

Overview of the Book

Some Cross-Cultural Teasers

Summary

Study Questions

Further Readings

 

Chapter 2: Theories and Methodology

Theories of Development

What Is a Theory?

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model

Super and Harkness’s Developmental Niche

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Development

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

Methodology in Cross-Cultural Human Development

Studying Development Cross Culturally: Some Methods, Problems, and Solutions

Methods for Assessing Components of the Developmental Niche

Studying Ecological Systems

Summary

Study Questions

Further Readings

Developmental Analysis

 

Chapter 3: Culture and Socialization

What is Socialization?

Ecological Model and the Development Niche

Some Cultural Variations in the Socialization of Behavior

Infancy

Childhood

Adolescence

Adulthood

Summary

Study Questions

Further Readings

Developmental Analysis

 

Chapter 4: Cultural Aspects of Physical Growth and Development

Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Physical Development

The Prenatal Period

Infancy and Early Childhood

Middle Childhood

Adolescence

Early and Middle Adulthood

Later Adulthood

Summary

Study Questions

Further Readings

Developmental Analysis

 

Chapter 5: Culture, Language, and Cognition

The Language-Cognition-Culture Link

Infancy

Early Cognitive Development in Cultural Contexts

Language Acquisition

Early Second-Language Acquisition and Bilingualism

Childhood

Stages of Knowing and Learning

Language Skills and Language Socialization

Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Formal Operational Thinking

Analytic Thinking and Problem-Solving

Middle and Later Adulthood

Intelligence

Communicating in Later Life

Summary

Study Questions

Further Readings

Developmental Analysis

 

Chapter 6: Culture, Self, and Personality

Infancy and Temperament

Temperament, Ecological Systems, and the Developmental Niche

Temperament and “Goodness of Fit”

Childhood and the Emergence of the Self

Cultural Views of the Person

Personhood in a Balinese Village

Personhood in China, Japan, and the United States

Cultural Views of the Self as a Person

Culture-Specific Aspects of Self

Content and Context of the Self-Concept

      Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy

Adolescence: Threshold to the Adult World

      Identity Formation

      Social Identity Formation

Cultural Influences on Social Identity

Adulthood and Aging

      Normative Tasks of Social Living in Samoa

Summary

Study Questions

Further Readings

Developmental Analysis

 

Chapter7: Issues of Gender and Sexuality

Theoretical Perspectives on Gender Differences

Biological Perspectives

Evolutionary Perspectives

Socialization and Learning Perspectives

Infancy and Childhood

Gender Socialization

Cultural Influences on Female and Male Socialization

Gender Relationships in Childhood

Adolescence

      Markers of Sexual Maturation

      Gender, Sexuality, and Cultural Taboos

Early and Middle Adulthood

      Status and the Division of Labor within the Family

      Division of Labor in the Workforce

      Gender Relations in Social Status, Religion, and Public Policy

Later Adulthood and Old Age

      Divorce and Widowhood

      Gender Roles and Status in Old Age

Summary

Study Questions

Further Readings

Developmental Analysis

 

Chapter 8: Culture and Social Behavior

Infancy

      Child-Caretaker Relationships and Attachment Patterns

      Secure Base-Hypothesis

      The Sensitivity Hypothesis

      Consistency and Inconsistency of Attachment Over Time

Childhood

      Peer Culture and Social Relationships

      Sharing and Social Participation

      Moral Development and Prosocial Orientation

      Cultural Influences on Caring and Justice Orientation

      Aggression

Adolescence

      Family and Peer Influences on Adolescent Social Behavior

      Cultural Influences on Adolescent Social Behavior

Adulthood and Aging

      Developmental Tasks in Middle and Later Adulthood

      Work and Leisure in Middle Adulthood

      Sport as a Social Phenomenon

      Social Support and Well-Being in Later Adulthood

Summary

Study Questions

Further Readings

Developmental Analysis

 

Chapter 9: The Family in Cultural Context

Cultural Variations in the Family Life Cycle

      Mate Selection

      Marriage and Other Ling-Term Relationships

The Birth Process Across Cultures

      The Ecology of Birth

The Transition to Parenthood

Parenting Infants and Children

      Parental Belief Systems

      Mothering

      Fathering

Parenting Adolescents

      The Ecological Model and Adolescence

      Cross-Cultural Differences in Adolescent Peer Relationships

Adulthood and Aging

      Grandparenthood

      Caring for the Elderly

The Changing Context of Families

Summary

Study Questions

Further Readings

Developmental Analysis

 

Chapter 10: Cultural and Health

Cultural Concepts of Health and Healing

      Culture-Bound Syndromes

      Medical Diagnosis Across Cultures

Infancy and Childhood

      Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

      Childhood Mental Health

      Parental Beliefs About Caring for Infants and Children

Adolescence

      Eating Disorders

      Culture and Sexually Transmitted Diseases

      Culture and Adolescent Drug Use

Early and Middle Adulthood

      Mental Health Issues

Later Adulthood

      Disease and Premature Aging

      Cultural Views on Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

Summary

Study Questions

Further Readings

Developmental Analysis

 

Chapter 11: Looking to the Future

Looking Back: A Review of Major Themes and Theories

      Ecological Model

      Developmental Niche

      Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

      Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory

      Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

      Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

Where Do We Go from Here? Thoughts and Challenges to the Future

Summary

Study Questions

Further Readings

 

What Reviewers Are Saying About Lives Across Cultures, 4e

 

 

 

“Harry Gardiner and Corinne Kosmitzki, and their own very capable hands, skillfully and in an engaging and personal style, have energetically and generously updated and extended the coverage provided in the third edition of Lives Across Cultures.  Covering all of the major developmental topics from cradle to grave, they take the reader through the labyrinth of lives that work and play and, unfortunately, fight through occasional major crises and the vexing problems of growing up.  The style and tone of the book is genuinely comfortable.  Reading it is like having a friendly dialogue with gentle and caring friends.”

 

From the Forward by Walter J. Lonner

                                                                                    Western Washington University

 

 

 

 

“To our knowledge this book has no competition, and is unique … It is unusual for a book to change a curriculum, but rather than being written to fill a demand for classes in cross-cultural human development, it appears that these courses are being created at various universities because Gardiner and Kozmitzki published this text … As Lonner writes in the foreword, the field is changing quickly and significantly, and LAC is in great hands as Gardiner and Kosmitzki reflect this change in each new edition. This is an improved edition, not just a newer edition.”

 

                                                            David W. Shwalb and Barbara J. Shwalb

                                                                        Southeastern Louisiana University

What Reviewers Are Saying About Lives Across Cultures, 4/e

 

 

“Harry Gardiner and Corinne Kosmitzki, and their own very capable hands, skillfully and in an engaging and personal style, have energetically and generously updated and extended the coverage provided in the third edition of Lives Across Cultures. Covering all of the major developmental topics from cradle to grave, they take the reader through the labyrinth of lives that work and play and, unfortunately, fight through occasional major crises and the vexing problems of growing up. The style and tone of the book is genuinely comfortable. Reading it is like having a friendly dialogue with gentle and caring friends.”

 

From the Forward by Walter J. Lonner

Western Washington University

 

 

 

“To our knowledge this book has no competition, and is unique … It is unusual for a book to change a curriculum, but rather than being written to fill a demand for classes in cross-cultural human development, it appears that these courses are being created at various universities because Gardiner and Kozmitzki published this text … As Lonner writes in the foreword, the field is changing quickly and significantly, and LAC is in great hands as Gardiner and Kosmitzki reflect this change in each new edition. This is an improved edition, not just a newer edition.”

 

David W. Shwalb and Barbara J. Shwalb

Southeastern Louisiana University

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  • 0205614213Lives Across Cultures, CourseSmart eTextbook, 4/E
    Gardiner & Kosmitzki
    © 2008 | Allyn & Bacon | Electronic Book; 384 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0205614213 | ISBN-13: 9780205614219
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    Gardiner & Kosmitzki
    © 2008 | Allyn & Bacon | Vital Source; 384 pages | Estimated Availability: 02/15/2007
    ISBN-10: 0205694993 | ISBN-13: 9780205694990

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