Edition after edition, Kathleen Stassen Berger’s bestselling textbooks connect all kinds of students to current state of developmental psychology, in an engaging, accessible, culturally inclusive way. Berger’s Invitation to the Life Span does this in just 15 concise chapters, in a presentation that meets the challenges of exploring the breadth of the life span in a single term.

The new edition of Invitation to the Life Span incorporates a wide range of new research, especially in fast-moving areas such as brain development and psychopathology, while taking advantage of innovative new tools for media-centered teaching and learning. But throughout, as always, the signature voice of Kathleen Berger ties it all together, with relatable explanations of scientific content, wide ranging cultural examples, and skill-building tools for sharper observation and critical thinking.

Kathleen Stassen Berger completed her undergraduate education at Stanford University and Radcliffe College, earned her M.A.T. from Harvard University and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Yeshiva University. Her broad range of experience as an educator includes directing a preschool, teaching philosophy and humanities at the United Nations International School, teaching child and adolescent development to graduate students at Fordham University, teaching inmates earning paralegal degrees at Sing Sing Prison, and teaching undergraduates at both Montclair State University and Quinnipiac University. She has also been involved in education as the president of Community School Board in District Two in Manhattan. 

For over three decades, Berger has taught human development at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York. The students Kathleen Berger teaches every year come from diverse ethnic, economic, and educational backgrounds representing a wide range of interests and consistently honor her with the highest teaching evaluations.

Berger’s developmental texts are currently being used at nearly 700 colleges and universities in a dozen countries and in five languages. Kathleen’s research interests include adolescent identity, sibling relationships, and bullying. As the mother of four daughters, as well as a new grandmother, she brings to her teaching and writing ample firsthand experience with human development.

Each chapter now includes two boxed features: A View from Science, which also appeared in Invitation 1e and explores scientific research on a topic from the chapter, and a new feature, Opposing Perspectives, which encourages critical thinking by presenting arguments on two sides of a developmental issue and asking students to consider which they think is valid, and why.

Chapter 1. The Science of Development
The A-head Theories of Human Development now includes discussion of humanism and evolutionary theory.

Chapter 2. From Conception to Birth
This chapter now describes the normal process of development from conception to birth and then discusses potential genetic and chromosomal problems; in Invitation 1e discussion of genetic problems interrupted the description of the normal process.

Chapter 3. The First Two Years: Body and Mind
The A-head Perceiving and Moving now includes a section on dynamic sensory-motor systems.

Chapter 4. The First Two Years: Psychosocial Development
The A-head Emotional Development includes a new section on brain maturation and its role in the development of emotions.

The A-head Theories of Infant Psychosocial Development now includes the theoretical perspectives of humanism and evolutionary theory.

Chapter 5. Early Childhood: Body and Mind
Discussion of theory-theory and theory of mind has been brought forward from Chapter 7 (where it appeared in Invitation 1e).

Chapter 6. Early Childhood: Psychosocial Development
Discussion of child maltreatment has been moved to this chapter from Ch. 5 in Invitation 1e to underscore the psychosocial effects of maltreatment.

Chapter 7: Middle Childhood: Body and Mind
The section on children with special needs has been substantially revised and expanded. It now includes a new section on bipolar disorder and a new section on educating students who are designated as gifted and talented.

Chapter 8: Middle Childhood: Psychosocial Development
This chapter now includes a significantly revised section on family function and family structure, including the impact of various structures on development.

Chapter 9: Adolescence: Body and Mind
A new Opposing Perspectives feature presents pros and cons in the controversy over the desirability and efficacy of aptitude and achievement testing.

Chapter 10: Adolescence: Psychosocial Development
A substantially revised section on the nature and potential effects of sexual interactions in adolescence includes an A View from Science feature on the consequences of sexual abuse.

Chapter 11: Emerging Adulthood: Body, Mind, and Social World
The chapter includes a new section on postformal thought.

It also includes a new section on the continuity and plasticity of personality in emerging adulthood.

Chapter 12: Adulthood: Body and Mind
The section on the effects of aging on the brain has been moved up and now begins the discussion of senescence.

Discussion of stress and its effects in adulthood has been moved up from Ch. 13.

The new Opposing Perspectives feature examines the effects of a mother’s knowledge of infant development on the actual infant care she provides.

Chapter 13: Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
The new Opposing Perspectives feature revisits the nature-nurture debate by presenting two views in the debate about personality development: whether an individual’s personality is innate (i.e., genetically determined) or the result of environmental influences.

Chapter 14: Late Adulthood: Body and Mind
The section on cognition has been brought forward and now precedes the section on health and sickness (which is now called Aging and Disease).

A View from Science: Teaching Old Dogs presents research that even the old-old can improve performance in tests of cognitive abilities when they are expressly taught how to do so, and also that there is some transference of improved ability from one task to another.

The chapter now ends with an A-head called New Cognitive Development, which is a revised presentation of the information in the B-head New Cognitive Development in Invitation 1e.

Chapter 15: Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
New Opposing Perspectives feature discusses two views of the use of the Internet and social media in ate adulthood.

Revised section on alternative care for the elderly is now a B-head (it was a C-head in Invitation 1e).

Epilogue: Death and Dying
The chapter has been substantially revise and reorganized, with new headings and new boxed features.

New Opposing Perspectives feature discusses two views of the use of the Internet and social networking in late adulthood.

The section on grief from Invitation 1e has been revised and is now presented in the A View from Science feature.