The Life Span: Human Development for Helping Professionals

by Patricia C. Broderick, Pamela Blewitt

The first developmental textbook written specifically for helping professionals and graduate-level students, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping Professionals, Third Edition, provides an in-depth look at the science of human development and how it applies to the fields of counseling, social work and psychology. Using counseling applications, case studies, special topics boxes, and journal questions, the text introduces developmental theories and research within the context of clinical practice. Written with a primary focus on linking theory and research to counseling applications, the new third edition features expanded coverage of psycholopathology in developmental context as well as added material on the latest development-related neuroscientific findings. The revised edition also provides an open access text-specific companion website that offers a full range of multimedia instructor supp

Genres: Counselling, Psychology, Textbooks, Grad School, Nonfiction, School

624 pages, Hardcover

Published July 25, 2009

About the author

Patricia C. Broderick, PhD, is a research associate at the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development at Penn State University and founder of the Stress Reduction Center at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. A graduate of the mindfulness-based stress reduction advanced practicum at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Broderick is a licensed clinical psychologist as well as a certified school psychologist and counselor for grades K through 12. In addition, she is the author of The Life Span: Human Development for Helping Professionals, a textbook for graduate-level students and mental health professionals.

Reviews

[Lolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative check. Lengthy check. Dry check.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion the chapters were a little too long. However the application sections at the end of chapters was very helpful and worth reading.

[Natalie Kaufman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book does a TERRIBLE job of unpacking gender and sexuality as it relates to human development. The section on LGBT* individuals was essentially just rehashing Freud's theory that homosexual teens are screwed up and then refuting it without offering a better explanation. Maybe one page, tops. The section on gender, meanwhile, ignores all of the scientific evidence there are more than two genders and instead says something along the lines of "sooooome people say there are more genders but we aren't those people we're just going to talk about man and woman GOOD BYE"

very disappointed.

[Abigail Wingard]

In terms of organization, information presented, and balanced, not-political bias, this was a good textbook. But man, it's been five years since I read a textbook and I forgot what a slog they are.

[Krista · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't normally count textbooks, but I think I would have tried reading this even if I hadn't HAD to. Unfortunately, it's not a well-written book. Much of the coverage is surface level - there's a difference between a survey of literature and a pass-through of knowledge. This book is the latter. Additionally, the authors make some statements about sex, gender, and sexual orientation that are actively offensive, dismissing a lot of respected academic literature to forward some pretty archaic ideas about all three.

[Drew Van Gorder · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as books for a psychology course which I'm taking goes, this book wasn't that bad. It was fairly academic while still having interesting facts, tables, and information within it which is relevant to my career in psychology. However, the material in some places got a little dry and long-winded. I understand in academia the textbooks can't all be life-changing. This one was pretty good, but not great.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is perhaps overly informative. If you are a beginner, go with something that's is more to the point; while you will read about develop here, there is so much extra information that it is not always clear what the point is. The writing, while written at an appropriate level for the target audience, is extremely dense and dry.

[Alejandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this book for class and although it did have some great information, it was just soooo wordy. The chapters were way too long and it was hard to follow. The chapters also has a lot of information that really wasn't needed. It seemed like the author wanted to fill as many pages as they could

[Monster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really makes me wonder what queer, disabled, biopoc leadership would do to the publishing world. Such a frustrating text, taught by a prof who made no moves to even name the glaring absence of considerations for anyone who isn't hetero-cis and white.

[Alec · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this textbook to be immensely frustrating. It was poorly written: overly long without defining anything clearly. I found myself having to use outside resources often to understand the key concepts and theories. The discussions of intersex individuals, gender identity, and sexuality weren't just outdated (which isn't acceptable when the newest edition was published in 2020), they were outright offensive. The discussion of minority stress theory was cursory despite it being a critically important theory. Multicultural considerations were largely confined to the applications sections, rather than integrated throughout.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to give this a 2.5.. while some chapters were really helpful and insightful, there were a few that were very outdated in their concepts and terminology. As a future counselor, I likely wouldn't recommend this book to others in the profession as I'm hoping there are more updated options out there to better support our work with clients.

[Arie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summarizes a lot of research but unnecessarily long and wordy. Also disappointed the authors don’t critique the literature, they present some outdated theories without really commenting on why certain findings are problematic to generalize to a larger population especially as they relate to diversity.

[Natalie Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of many different developmental theories that was very interesting to read. That being said, it was dense at times and the chapters on gender and sexuality were quite dated. However, I did enjoy the case studies that were throughout the chapters that showed the theories in life examples.

[Tiffeny · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you need to read a psychology book on the human lifecycle, this is a good one. A bit dry and overly scientific in parts for my liking, but I also appreciated that they repeatedly stated there are multiple paths and no one "right" way for everyone.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this for a graduate developmental psych class. As far as required reading goes, this wasn't bad. I found that most of the end of chapter content and box/table content was significantly more interesting and beneficial.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be very helpful in my studies as a Music Therapy. At times the text was bland, but I mean it is a school book so that is expected with most. Reading about different theories throughout the lifespan was very interesting as well.

[Cheza OH · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive and advance take on the study of human development. It synthesizes the nature and nurture debate across all chapters and also includes reflective practice questions for readers. Recommended for teaching advanced developmental psychology.

[Bowen Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative, but dense. Lost me frequently as chapters were just run on information and did not do much to engage the reader. Felt more of a chore reading chapters instead of the natural wonder of discovering concepts and methods for applicable use.

[Taylor Caruso - Bucher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the questions to think about during each chapter. It presented the opportunity to question the material and ponder on ways to improve or research different ideas.

[Tim Tuttle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative but dry and excessive ...even for a text book...but a good reference

[Caroline Abbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my human development course for my counseling master's degree. It was thorough, interesting, and applicable.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather good, and well written overview of human development from a psychological perspective.

[Avid reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love studying human development in the light of psychotherapy. So cool.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not an enjoyable read-chapters were long and dense-but I did learn a lot.

[Jennifer Conner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heavy textbook (physically and cerebrally), but helpful in diving deep into the cognitive, emotional, social, and moral development aspects of human growth and development.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a looooooong textbook and sometimes discussed things to the point of boredom… but I learned A LOT and will definitely use the information from this book for my career in counseling.

[Sarah Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

It turns out you learn a looootttt when you actually read your textbooks. Thoroughly enjoyed but also thoroughly struggled to understand the complex long winded chapters for 16 weeks straight! :-)

[Stephanie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was definitely not an easy read, but I totally psychology-nerded out on this textbook!

[Dana Libhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
This textbook is extremely informative, maybe even a little TOO informative. The chapters are very long and daunting. It has been a great resource that covers a ton of areas, and the application sections in each chapter are my biggest takeaway. I’ll be keeping it around for future reference.

[Pamela Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is interesting about the book is the entire book is written as a Theory. Many learners do not realize it is a theory until they start reading about 3/4 of the way then it states on page 438 in the summary:1. The complexity of adult development makes it clear that multidimensional models are needed to adequately understand the processes of change. Life span developmental models (same as saying it is a theory), focus on both hereditary and environmental influences and on the continuities and changes that characterize adults. They emphasize that adaptation continues from birth to death.

This was a chapter on middle adulthood. Since I just began understanding psyhology I think anyone interested and planning to take future courses should understand this to me is a remarkable theory.
You can learn so much about babies to elders (I call them because they are so wise to live through so much!)

Really this book should be read by new mothers and fathers too!