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.

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

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.