Human Development

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett is a Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. in developmental psychology in 1986 from the University of Virginia, and did three years of postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago. From 1992-1998 he was Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Missouri where he taught a 300-student lifespan development course every semester. From 1998-2005 he was a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development at the University of Maryland. In 2005 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.  His primary scholarly interest for the past 10 years has been in emerging adulthood. He coined the term, and has conducted research on emerging adults concerning a wide variety of topics, including risk behaviour (especially cigarette smoking) and media use (especially music), involving several different ethnic groups in American society. He is the editor of the Journal of Adolescent Research, and is on the Editorial Board of four other journals. He was Editor-In-Chief for two encyclopedias published in 2007, the International Encyclopedia of Adolescence (Routledge, two volumes) and the Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, and the Media (Sage, two volumes). He has published many theoretical and research papers on emerging adulthood in peer-reviewed journals, as well as the books Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach (2010, 4th edition, Pearson); Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties (2004, Oxford University Press); and Metalheads: Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Alienation (1996, Westview Press). He has also edited (with Jennifer Tanner) the book Emerging Adults in America: Coming of Age in the 21st Century, published in 2006 by APA Books.   He lives in Worcester, Massachusetts with his wife Lene Jensen and their twins, Miles and Paris.  Lene Arnett Jensen is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She received her PhD in developmental psychology in 1994 from the University of Chicago and did a 1-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California–Berkeley. Prior to going to Clark University, she taught at the University of Missouri and Catholic University of America. She has also been a visiting professor at Stanford University, Aalborg University in Denmark, Maharaja Sayajirao University in India and the University of Bordeaux in France. She aims through scholarship and professional collaboration to move the discipline of psychology towards understanding development both in terms of what is universal and what is cultural. She terms this a 'cultural-developmental approach'. Her research addresses moral development and cultural identity formation. Together with her students, she has conducted research in countries such as Denmark, India, Thailand, Turkey and the United States.  Her publications include New Horizons in Developmental Theory and Research (2005, with Reed Larson, Jossey-Bass/Wiley), Immigrant Civic Engagement: New Translations (2008, with Constance Flanagan, Taylor-Francis), Bridging Cultural and Developmental Psychology: New Syntheses for Theory, Research and Policy (2011, Oxford University Press), the Oxford Handbook of Human Development and Culture (2015, Oxford University Press), Moral Development in a Global World: Research from a Cultural-Developmental Perspective (2015, Cambridge University Press) and the Oxford Handbook of Moral Development (Oxford University Press). From 2004 to 2015, she was editor-in-chief for the journal New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development (with Reed Larson). She served as program chair for the 2012 biennial conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence (with Xinyin Chen), and currently serves on awards committees for the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD) and the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA).  Laurie Chapin is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. Originally from the United States, in 2010 she completed her PhD in applied social psychology, with an emphasis on life span development, at Colorado State University, where she began teaching adolescent and life span development. She moved to Australia in 2011, and currently teaches a variety of psychology units at Victoria University.  Her research interests and publications focus on young people from vulnerable backgrounds and resilience associated with positive outcomes. She supervises student research projects at all levels of study related to resilience, wellbeing and community programs in Melbourne and regional Victoria to support youth development. She co-developed VU Kick Start, a unique university orientation program for first-year students who are the first in their families to attend university. She has two children in primary school and lives in the inner west of Melbourne.  Charlotte Brownlow is a Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean of the Graduate Research School at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Originally from the United Kingdom, she received her PhD in 2007 from The University of Brighton, focusing on the identity construction of people with autism/autistic people. She has written many research papers within the field of autism and has a particular interest in the concept of 'difference'. With colleagues, she has co-edited the books Different Childhoods: Non/normative Development and Transgressive Trajectories (2017) and Work and Identity: Contemporary Perspectives on Workplace Diversity (2018), and has recently co-authored Interoception and Regulation. Teaching Skills of Body Awareness and Supporting Connection with Others (2022). Charlotte supervises several PhD students who are completing their research within developmental psychology. She lives in Toowoomba, Queensland, with her husband Neil, their three children and two dogs.  Tanya Machin is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Counselling in the School of Psychology and Wellbeing, and Associate Dean (Academic) of the Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences at the University of Southern Queensland. In 2016, she received her PhD, which focused on the social cues of rejection and acceptance on Facebook. Tanya has worked in many different sectors including primary schools, financial services and mental health. Her research interests focus primarily on social media and technology across the life span, and she supervises students who are completing their PhD research in this area. She lives in Toowoomba, Queensland, with her husband Tony and their dog. 

A Cultural Approach to Human Development
Genetics and Prenatal Development
Birth and the Newborn Child
Infancy
Toddlerhood
Early Childhood
Middle Childhood
Adolescence
Emerging Adulthood
Young Adulthood
Middle Adulthood
Late Adulthood
Death and Afterlife Beliefs 
Glossary