Gender Development

This text offers a unique developmental focus on gender. Gender development is examined from infancy through adolescence, integrating biological, socialization, and cognitive perspectives. The book’s current empirical focus is complemented by a lively and readable style that includes anecdotes about children’s everyday experiences. The book’s accessibility is further enhanced with the use of bold face to highlight key terms when first introduced along with a complete glossary of these terms. All three of the authors are respected researchers in divergent areas of children’s gender role development and each of them teaches a course on the topic. The book’s primary focus is on gender role behaviors – how they develop and the roles biological and experiential factors play in their development. The first section of the text introduces the field and outlines its history. Part 2 focuses on the differences between the sexes, including the biology of sex and the latest research on behavioral sex differences, including motor and cognitive behaviors and personality and social behaviors. Contemporary theoretical perspectives on gender development – biological, social and environmental, and cognitive approaches – are explored in Part 3 along with the research supporting these models. The social agents of gender development, including children themselves, family, peers, the media, and schools are addressed in the final part. Cutting-edge and comprehensive, this is the perfect text for those who have been searching for an advanced undergraduate and/or graduate book for courses in gender development, the psychology of sex roles and/or gender and/or women or men, taught in departments of psychology, human development, and educational psychology. Although chapters have been designed to be read sequentially, a full author citation is included the first time a reference is used within an individual chapter rather than only the first time it is used in the book, making it easy to assign chapters in a variety of orders. This referencing system will also appeal to scholars interested in using the book as a resource to review a particular content area.

Table of Contents:
1.Introduction. 2. History of the Study of Gender Development. 3. Biological Foundations of Sex and Gender. 4. Motor Development and Cognition. 5.  Personality and Social Behaviors. 6. Biological Approaches to Gender Development. 7. Social Approaches to Gender Development. 8. Cognitive Approaches to Gender Development. 9. The Cognitive Self as an Agent of Gender Development. 10. The Family as an Agent of Gender Development. 11. The Peer Group as an Agent of Gender Development. 12. The Media as an Agent of Gender Development. 13. The School as an Agent of Gender Development. Epilogue.

About the Author :
Judith Elaine Blakemore is Professor of Psychology and Department Chair at Indiana University – Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Northern Illinois University. Sheri A. Berenbaum is Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics and a member of the Neuroscience Institute at The Pennsylvania State University. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Lynn S. Liben is Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Human Development & Family Studies, and Education at The Pennsylvania State University. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Michigan.

Review :
"Ever since the groundbreaking The Development of Sex Differences (1966) by Eleanor Maccoby aged beyond its usefulness, students and researchers have needed a comprehensive, well-written, and informative current account of gender development research and theory. This excellent book is it." - Elizabeth Mazur, Penn StateGreater Allegheny, in Psychology of Women Quarterly "...A substantial and much needed contribution to the field. Students of gender are fortunate that these authors have pooled their talents to educate them about this fascinating but extremely complex aspect of human development. Gender Development should make a fine text for … graduate and advanced undergraduate students….[and] serve as an excellent reference resource for gender researchers." - David G. Perry and Rachel E. Pauletti in Sex Roles "I think this is going to be a terrific text...This book will, indeed, fill a gap in the literature...It was a pleasure to read...I am highly likely to require the text for my courses on gender and racial attitudes." -Rebecca S. Bigler, University of Texas at Austin "I believe that the...book will significantly contribute to the field of child development and gender role development. This is a field that has grown much in the past decades and an updated text on this topic will be very useful...I would certainly adopt it for my course on gender role development." -Yvonne Caldera, Texas Tech University "Developmental science focuses on the process of change over time and thus provides a unique and necessary perspective on questions about gender. Thus this is a much-needed text; even more, it is an excellent, detailed and highly scientific review of the extant research. The three authors are individually well-known researchers; each has done groundbreaking research in the area of gender development, and the three represent diverse approaches—biological, socioemotional and cognitive. Together, they provide an unparalleled presentation of the depth and scope of the most current research. ... One can read the book through for an in-depth examination of the research on gender development, or one can dip into it for a quick analysis of a particular issue. Thus it will be of great use both for the classroom—where it can be the main text for a course in gender, or sections can be assigned for courses in Psychology of Women, Child Development, Social Psychology and so on—and also for scholars in gender and related fields, who will find a coherent up-to-date account of the latest research findings." - Robyn Fivush, Emory University, USA, in Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology "Ever since the groundbreaking The Development of Sex Differences (1966) by Eleanor Maccoby aged beyond its usefulness, students and researchers have needed a comprehensive, well-written, and informative current account of gender development research and theory. This excellent book is it. Chapters are rich with detailed and clear accounts of research that will be useful to experienced scientists as well as to advanced undergraduate and, more likely, graduate students." - Elizabeth Mazur, Penn StateGreater Allegheny, in Psychology of Women Quarterly "...A substantial and much needed contribution to the field. Students of gender are fortunate that these authors have pooled their talents to educate them about this fascinating but extremely complex aspect of human development. Gender Development should make a fine text for … graduate and advanced undergraduate students….[and] serve as an excellent reference resource for gender researchers." - David G. Perry and Rachel E. Pauletti in Sex Roles "This is a terrific text! The book fills a gap in the literature and does so beautifully...It was a real pleasure to read. I will require this text for my courses on gender role attitudes and behavior." -Rebecca S. Bigler, University of Texas at Austin "I believe that the...book will significantly contribute to the field of child development and gender role development. This is a field that has grown much in the past decades and an updated text on this topic will be very useful...I would certainly adopt it for my course on gender role development." -Yvonne Caldera, Texas Tech University