Theories of Human Development: A Comparative Approach

The authors have grouped the theories into three classical "families" which differ in their views relative to the prime motives underlying human nature. They show how theories are specific examples of more general points of view called paradigms. The theories chosen to represent the three paradigms (the Endogenous Paradigm, Exogenous Paradigm, and the Constructivist Paradigm) were selected because they met four criteria:

importance, as judged by academic and research psychologists

fertility, as judged by the amount of research the theory has generated

scope, as judged by the variety of phenomena the various theories explain

family resemblance, as judged by how well each theory represents its paradigm

The authors present the "paradigm case" in the lead chapter for each paradigm. This paradigm case is the "best example" for the paradigm. The authors explain why paradigm cases are important, and give them more detailed treatment than other theories in the same paradigm.

Michael Green is an experienced evangelist on every continent. Currently, he is a Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford, England, and a Canon of Coventry Cathedral. He travels worldwide on speaking and preaching engagements and is the bestselling author of over fifty books. He and his wife, Rosemary, have four gown children.

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This book is written primarily for psychology and education students whose programs include a course in child psychology, child development, or theories of development. The text may also be used to supplement courses on child development organized thematically or chronologically. Instructors of graduate courses in child development may wish to consider this text as a primary synthesis containing more source material and source citations than others of its kind. The primary aim of the book is to describe what developmental theories are, what they can do, where they come from, how they work, and how they can be used to explain human nature.

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