This print textbook is available for students to rent for their classes. The Pearson print rental program provides students with affordable access to learning materials, so they come to class ready to succeed.
For courses in Lifespan Development
An introduction to development that emphasizes the importance of family and cultural contexts
Understanding Human Development presents an overview of development across the lifespan that emphasizes the dynamic interactions among biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces. Authors Wendy Dunn and Grace Craig present people as they are in the context of culture and subculture, helping all students to find themselves mirrored in the course. The 4th Edition has been thoroughly revised to include the latest research, as well as topics of contemporary interest ― such as changing notions of family, the effects of media on children, and recent LGBT issues ― that will draw students into their study of development.
About our authors
Wendy L. Dunn is the James Y. Canfield Professor of Psychology at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A first-generation college student who grew up on a farm in Iowa, Wendy earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Iowa State University; she holds 2 PhDs, both from the University of Iowa. Although she has assumed a variety of administrative appointments during her academic career, including serving for a time as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty and currently as Executive Director of Planning, Wendy takes the greatest pleasure in teaching and mentoring undergraduate students. She is the recipient of the C. J. Lynch Outstanding Teacher award at Coe College.
Wendy’s research centers on human learning and decision making. She has long been interested in how students learn and has written a wide variety of instructor’s manuals and student study guides to accompany many well-known psychology books. She is a co-author of 2 Introductory Psychology texts: Psychology: A Concise Introduction, with Lyle Bourne and Bruce Ekstand, and Psychology: Concepts and Applications, with Charles Morris and Al Maisto. Her partnership with Grace Craig through 4 editions of Understanding Human Development has been an especially rich collaboration.
Outside of her academic career, Wendy has been an active community volunteer, serving in leadership roles on boards for the Metropolitan YMCA, the United Way, Orchestra Iowa, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, and Brucemore, Inc., a property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Wendy has been happily married to Greg Dunn for more than 40 years; together they have a son, Bobby; a daughter, Whitney; a son-in-law, Eliot; and a 2-year-old grandson, Jake. Wendy believes that the study of human development comes alive when contextualized through the events of one’s own life and that her experiences as daughter, wife, mother and grandmother have contributed a rich and valuable perspective to how she views the unfolding of life’s story.
Grace J. Craig is Professor Emerita at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she taught for more than 40 years after teaching for 4 years at Smith College. She taught a variety of courses throughout her career, including child psychology, early childhood education, special education, lifespan development and child development. She has been an associate dean, acting dean, and, intermittently, the head of the Departments of Human Development, Student and Personnel Development, and Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies before her retirement in 2012. Grace's focus throughout her career was always on helping students, through teaching, advising and guiding them in their research. She has done research on child and family studies, lifespan development, and early childhood education, but she prefers working with students.
Grace earned her undergraduate degree in sociology and anthropology, and her master's degree and PhD in psychology, from the University of Massachusetts. She was a school psychologist for a few years while her daughter was young. She also supervised facilities such as a day-care center, a center for children with special needs, and preschools. Throughout her career, she has authored and co-authored several textbooks, including Human Development, now in its 9th Edition; Children Today; and Human Development: A Social Work Perspective.
Now retired, Grace enjoys birding. Her husband, Ralph, taught in Massachusetts public schools before his death in 2015. Her daughter, Talli McCormick, is a nurse practitioner who currently teaches Nursing at Massachusetts General Hospital, Institute for Allied Health Professionals. Her grandson, Edward McCormick, is earning his bachelor's degree at the University of Massachusetts.
