Jaan Valsiner 
Culture and Human Development 

This major new textbook by Jaan Valsiner focuses on the interface between cultural psychology and developmental psychology. Intended for students from undergraduate level upwards, the book provides a wide-ranging overview of the cultural perspective on human development, with illustrations from pre-natal development to adulthood.A key feature is the broad coverage of theoretical and methodological issues which have relevance to this truly interdisciplinary field of enquiry encompassing developmental psychology, cultural anthropology and comparative sociology.

The text is organized into five coherent parts:

Part 1: Developmental theory and methodology;

Part 2: Analysis of environments for human development

Part 3: Cultural organization of pregnancy and infancy;

Part 4: Early childhood development; and Part 5: Entering the world of activities – culturally ruled.

Table of Content

Introduction

How Do We Create Knowledge of Cultural Human Development

PART ONE: DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

Stability and Flow in Human Experience

Philosophical Preliminaries

The Developmental Approach

Theoretical Bases of Developmental and Cultural Psychology

Culture and Development

Developmental Methodology in Cultural Development Psychology

PART TWO: ANALYSIS OF ENVIRONMENTS FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Structure and Dynamics of Family/Kinship Groups and Marriage Forms

Cultural Organization of Human Life Environments

PART THREE: CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF PREGNANCY AND INFANCY

Cultural Nature of Parent-Offspring Differentiation during Pregnancy

Newborn and Infant Development

The Cultural-Ecological Niche

PART FOUR: EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

The Second Year of Life and beyond

Self Regulation and Participation in Early Childhood

PART FIVE: ENTERING THE WORLD OF ACTIVITIES – CULTURALLY RULED

Personal Participation and Its Social-Institutional Guidance

Adolescence

Moving through into Adulthood

About the author

Jaan Valsiner is Niels Bohr Professor of Cultural Psychology at Aalborg University, Denmark. He is the founding editor (1995) of the Sage journal, Culture & Psychology.  And of The Oxford Handbook of Culture and Psychology (2012). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Sciences  (Springer, from 2007). In 1995 he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize in Germany for his interdisciplinary work on human development, and Senior Fulbright Lecturing Award in Brazil 1995-1997. He has been a visiting professor in Brazil, Japan, Australia, Estonia. Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.