Adult Development and Aging

This 13-chapter text provides a comprehensive account of adult development and aging: covering the entire adult lifespan with extra emphasis on late adulthood. The book is divided into four parts: exploring the world of adulthood (introduction, metatheories and research methods); the world of body and mind (physical and cognitive/moral development); the social world (education, work, retirement and leisure, relationships and lifestyles, living arrangements, community support and caregiving); and the inner world (personality development, mental health, coping and successful aging, confronting death and bereavement). All periods of adulthood are viewed with equal importance with the idea that they all provide important and challenging opportunities for growth and change, and each chapter begins with a biographical vignette about a well-known person (such as Betty Friedman and Nelson Mandela) whose life dramatizes important issues discussed in the chapter. These vignettes illustrate that adult development is not just a dry science, but a very human story.
There is strong balance between theoretical, empirical and practical concerns and strong cross-cultural research - multi-cultural and multi-ethnic coverage is integrated throughout the text. Contemporary lifestyle variations are covered, including single parenting, dual earner families, homosexuality, grandparent caregivers and more.