Product Description

Human Growth & Development provides an accessible and student-friendly introduction to social and psychological human development across the lifespan.

Aimed at students within social work, health, nursing and education, the author presents the key theories and empirical evidence about the way people grow and change over the lifespan, relating theoretical ideas in an accessible and lively way to practice. The book uses examples based on real situations and invites the reader to measure ideas against their own experience and intuitions. The book contains a wealth of material, presented with a strong focus on clarity and explanation.

The author has a background in academic psychology and has worked for many years as a social worker, giving him the practical experience and knowledge to write a highly relevant book aimed at students whose needs are essentially practical.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19470 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 242 pages

From the Publisher
This title is available in a paperback edition

Customer Reviews

Good book for social work.
I am undertaking a social work degree and this book is on our recommended reading list. It is a brilliant book - very readable - very understandable - and with loads of information related to psychological theories of human development. I thoroughly recommend this to future students.

Fantastic Source for Social Work
I too am completing my Social Work Degree and this text was recommended for my psychology module and it has been an invaluable text. Beckett writes in a clear manner that is easy to understand and each chapter is well written. Theories are explained clearly in such a way that makes them easier to understand, particularly as psychology can be very over loading! I would recommend this book to anyone completing their Social Work Degree and I am sure you will find it just as useful. Best of luck!

Student Textbook, useful to social workers and psychologists in particular
This is very much a student textbook and presented in a very accessible format for anyone undertaking studies, the contents are clear, as is the index, each chapter begins with a helpful break down into sub-headings and these sections are interspaced with "activities".

A topic is partially presented, in a style which is informal, using lots of commonplace language and minising academic or professional jargon.

Each topic leads into an activity which is generally a simple question and answer format, encouraging the reader to examine their own perspectives, opinions or bias and then a pretty clear explanation of why these questions and scenarios are important follows.

The complete lifespan is covered, from birth to death and the author begins and finishes with a pretty literary or story format, the book is very much worth buying for the chapters on attachment theory and family systems theory alone.

If you are altogether new to the material I suspect that you'll be more impressed with it than I was, I couldnt give the book more than four stars because I felt that while I could understand the authors goal in adopting a particular writing style and aims in introducing the activities it was pretty pedantic.

A lot of the time I felt like I was being talked down to or being given the idiots line on complex debates like nature vs. nurture, equally I felt that the critical perspective on theory, all theory what so ever, was overdone and seriously invited some sloppy post modern relativism. Too much of it appeared to be for the sake of argument and I could easily see it translating into someones first year technical college or university essay format of presenting one view and then following it with "on the other hand" without much thought.

Although those complaints pale into insignificance when I consider the ways in which Hobbes, Locke and Marx are pretty selectively quoted. I really did think the author had only a passing acquaintence with any of them, which is a shame because he seems like a really knowledgeable guy and manages to cover a lot of ground in a compact format.

So, if you're a student, new to the material and primarily interested in the single purchase which will be most helpful in developing reflective thinking and essay writing skills (maybe you're on a tight budget and can only afford to go for one big theory book) this is it. If you're more familiar with a lot of the theories presented here in you might want the book because they are all presented in a single volume but I'll bet you'll feel let down.