 | GetTextbooks.com Compare Prices & Save up to 90% | | |
|
| Login | Sign up | Settings | New! iPhone App | My Wish List | My iBundle |
 | | Human Development Across the Lifespan by John Dacey, John Travers, Lisa Fiore ISBN-10: 9780073382654 ISBN-10: 0-07-338265-5 ISBN-13: 9780073382654 ISBN-13: 978-0-07-338265-4 Paperback 2008-04-07 McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description All of the lifespan without all of the bells and whistles. This chronologically-organized text is less expensive and briefer than most Lifespan texts. Its numerous examples drawn from education, nursing, and psychology make the content relevant to students from a variety of majors and backgrounds, while a highly praised study guide integrated into the text promotes and reinforces conceptual understanding. | ||
Reviews | ||
A Pleased Customer I recieved this book for 1/2 price and a quicker delivery than the college that was offering the course. I recommend using Amazon than I do the college bookstores or the local bookstores. The book was in excellent condition and the follow-up was a plus! | ||
This is the worst college textbook I have ever read in my life Homosexuality is given a scant two pages out of 587, and most of these two pages consists of a photo from an AIDS awareness march. The heading of this section, "Homosexual Behavior," is a misnomer, because no discussion of behavior takes place. Instead, the CAUSES of homosexuality are discussed. The authors adopt a pathological view that homosexual behavior is a sickness, and every sickness must have a cause. The first cause given is the psychoanalytic one, blaming parents for the homosexuality of their offspring. The second cause claims that homosexuals LEARN to be gay from an unknown source. Underwear advertisements in the newspaper? The third cause dwells on what the authors call "biopsychosocial factors." (The word "biopsychosocial" is a favorite of the authors. It means "we don't have an effin' clue.") Following this insult upon homosexuals are four pages with the heading, "Heterosexual Behavior." Now the authors show no interest in CAUSES whatsoever. Instead, they actually discuss heterosexual behavior. The disparity between the treatment of homosexuality and heterosexuality is clear both here and elsewhere. Throughout the text, the authors claim that opposite-sex attraction is a "necessary" part of human development and that those who do not progress to that stage are stuck in an infantile stage (e.g. the anal stage of Freud). The authors praise bigot G. Stanley Hall to the heavens, because he advocated beating gays with fists, stones, and clubs, and ostracizing promiscuous women (see p.292 for a passage that receives no admonishment whatsoever). On p. 315, one of the warning signs for suicidal adolescents, besides substance abuse, is "being homosexual," as though queer identity automatically comes with a death wish. No advice, insight or information is offered to gay readers, not even once throughout 587 pages, suggesting that the authors would really prefer gays to kill themselves. Half of p. 33 is devoted to a picture of a heterosexual couple holding hands, while Erikson is quoted: "A sense of intimacy with another person of the opposite gender SHOULD DEVELOP between the ages of 18 and 35. IF IT DOES NOT, A SENSE OF ISOLATION RESULTS." This is another gratuitous slap in the face by the authors. For my part, I do not feel isolated, but perhaps they missed me, during their worldwide survey of all the homosexuals. On p. 345, in the blue segment, fourth paragraph, homosexuality is acknowledged as one of the areas of greatest change in our attitudes toward sexuality. But in the very next paragraph, the authors equate homosexuality with a "problem" facing adolescents along with such horrors as AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy. Conservatives cannot be fond of a text that splashes the Democratic President on pgs. 3-4 along with a fawning biography. Republicans may no longer regard the Kennedys as a threat, but that prominent Democratic family receives adulation on pgs. 199 and 270. On p.263, the authors make the unscientific claim that self-control consists of "RESTRICTING drinking" while "REFUSING drugs," implying that liquor is normal and healthy, whereas marijuana is abnormal and unhealthy. Do alcoholics have greater self-control than someone who smokes a joint once a month? On p.88, the authors claim that marijuana causes early neurological problems in fetuses and "unknown long-term effects," without specifying the nature of these supposed "neurological problems." Ironically, on p.19, one of them writes, "We examine the correlation between variables to see how high they are. If high, we may want to set up experiments to further examine the relationship." The authors want "self-control" of their own. This tedious text has 587 error-strewn pages because the authors have no conception of editing. A hundred words are used whenever a dozen would suffice. Obvious statements are made without any regard for the reader's time. For example, on p. 24, "The adult years are no longer seen as a time devoid of change until decline sets in." That's a relief, isn't it? Adults are capable of change? Who knew? Half the book consists of fluff like that, elements of common sense that any reader knows before picking the book up. The authors neglect to identify themselves when they digress into their insipid asides, leaving it a mystery as to who the "I" is in their personal anecdotes. See p. 270, where one of the three authors (who knows which one) devotes half a page to criticizing one of his (or her) former employers. Was this relevant to the topic at hand, "Do Teachers Make a Difference?" No, because it was a criticism of an ineffective school principal. It is unlikely anyone is ever going to publish the authors' autobiographies, so they inserted bits and pieces like that one into the textbook, whether a good fit could be made or not. To compensate for their poor writing ability, they litter the book with quotes from famous people, a common device of amateur writers. Most of their quotes are inappropriate, such as the one on p.260, under the heading, "The Changing Sense of Self," which quotes Neitzche: "If we have our own 'why' of life, we can bear almost any 'how'." The real 'why' is, 'why did they insert that quote? Neitzche inspired both the Nazis and the authors as well, for reasons that are left to the reader's imagination. Note the insertion of a former titular head of the Catholic Church in the following list on page 404: "There are just too many famous people whose thinking OBVIOUSLY [my, aren't we cocky!] got better as they got older--to name A FEW [oh, just a few, is it now?], George Burns, Coco Chanel, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Helen Hayes, Michelangelo, Grandma Moses, Georgia O'Keefe, Pope John XXIII, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bertrand Russell, George Bernard Shaw, Sophocles, and Frank Lloyd Wright. [JUST A FEW, remember?]" The reason for including a Pope is obvious, even if the statement is not. The authors are current or former employees of Boston College, a Jesuit institution. I wish the authors would share their secret for giving dead people a posthumous IQ test. I would think such an achievement worthy of the Nobel Prize. To borrow an adverb from the above statement, "obviously" the authors confuse intelligence with prestige. Einstein made most of his contributions to physics prior to the age of fifty. Michelangelo completed his work upon the Sistine Chapel in 1512, prior to the age of forty. The list goes on. Authors, please review history and improve your understanding before making blanket assertions that you declare to be obvious, when they are "obviously" not so. On page 451, twenty-five statements are given that are either true or false, for the reader's amusement. Instead of providing the answers in a straightforward manner, the authors play coy. "Alternating pairs of items are true or false (i.e., 1 and 2 are true, 3 and 4 are false, 5 and 6 are true, and so on; 25 is true.)" Why not just give the answers? Why must the authors be obnoxious about it? In a similar fashion, the authors play games with truth and falsehood throughout the remainder of the text. This textbook was assigned in my Psychology course, and I had to pay $125 for it. For that amount of money, I could have purchased all the works of Shakespeare. Dacey, Travers and Fiore ought to be ashamed of themselves for churning out drivel of this nature and then extorting such a large sum of money from poor students already beset with escalating tuition costs. There is no doubt in my mind that I will sell this hack job after my class is over. It is biased, inaccurate, unscientific, verbose, and gives far too much emphasis on discredited opinions from long ago that suit the authors' socially conservative agenda. | ||
Perfect Book This Book was brand new and in great shape and I bought it at a great price. Fast shipping! Wonderful seller. | ||
School Book This book was mandatory for my human development class, but I learned more from in class discussions than from this book. It has some pretty interesting stuff about babies and toddlers if you are not familiar in that area. | ||
fast delivery / smooth transaction I would purchase from this vendor again. It shipped quickly, and the transaction went very well. | ||