New Perspectives on Human Development

For years, researchers in human development have found it hard to explain how biological processes, mental life and social surroundings relate to one another. Many have simply assigned credit to one side, treating a person's psychological abilities as either fixed by biology or shaped entirely by culture and environment, and have studied each area on its own.

This volume takes a unified view of these questions. It covers theory and research on thinking, social and moral growth, and language and communication, following development across the stages of life and drawing on several disciplines. It returns to long-standing debates, presents new empirical findings, and points toward future research directions in the field.