الملخص الإنجليزي
As an introductory developmental psychology text, Fundamentals of Development achieves a passing grade. The authors adopt a topic-based approach which, though promoting the material's accessibility to students, seems incomplete, disjointed and lacking in organisation. The text maintains a solidly cognitive approach, but it fails to assert the interactions among the biological, social and cultural influences present in each aspect of development. In terms of accessibility, the language used in this text is simple and presented conversationally. Though this may appeal to introductory students, it often re duces the power of the theories being discussed, and allows the authors to pass judgements which may be considered inappropriate at this level of foundation. The simple and repetitive language may be an advantage to students who do not have English as their native language, but must be balanced with the fact that this often reduces the explanatory power of the presented theories. In conclusion, although this text does an excellent job of illustrating and explaining many of the major studies that brought advances in our understanding of psychological development, it lacks the cohesive ness and broad-spectrum approach that would make it a good introductory text for independent use. It is much better as a companion piece to a fuller text, so that its chapters can be used to flesh out concepts with examples and easy, conversational language.
