Exploring Developmental Psychology
Understanding Theory and Methods
- Margaret Harris - Oxford Brookes University, UK, University of London, UK, Aston University, UK
Developmental Psychology (General)
A wide range of techniques is used to investigate children's development. This book, which is aimed at advanced undergraduates and postgraduate students in psychology and related areas, provides a guide to key theories and methods used by researchers.
Carefully chosen articles are accompanied by a commentary from the author that, among other things, helps students to understand the rationale for a study, the choice of design and assessment measures, use of statistics and the interpretation of results. A wide range of recent research papers is included to cover observational and experimental methods from infancy to adolescence. The research papers are introduced by two chapters that consider the relationship between theory and methods, explaining how models of development differ from one another and how they can be tested through experimental studies.
'This book is a fantastic guide to the study of developmental psychology and... it successfully achieves its goals of providing an accurate and through understanding of theories, methods and the research context... this book is excellent in aiding the reader to understand how to interpret complex journal articles. It provides the reader with confidence in their own ability to browse, interpret and draw their own conclusions from developmental psychology journals. It is highly recommended for undergraduate or postgraduate students within the field of developmental psychology'
Gemma Reynolds
Psychology: Learning & Teaching
This is a very good book which explores developmental psychology through careful analysis of some well chosen empirical research articles. It is a very useful resource for introducing students to psychological research and to help them build the confidence and skills to develop research designs and methodologies. The chapter on the nature of development provides a very useful summary of key ideas and theories.
Very useful text to introduce and enhance understanding of developmental psychology, will be recommending this to my students as a supplemental text.
Provides good examples of specific child research studies in developmental psychology
This book is good, but does not have all the specific theories students on our courses require, nevertheless a good read for higher level psychology students.
I have adopted the first three chapters of this book for my graduate level developmental course.
One for the book list. Clear and accessible. Students liked this text.
Useful text for a range of courses studying developmental psychology - would like to have used for Childhood Studies students however the audience is more likely to be physchology degree students.
This is a very factual book giving very good examples. The examples are related to a range of situations.
An excellent text which brings contemporary research to the forefront when introducing the key theories and methods of development psychology
