Beckett, C: Human Growth and Development

What is it that determines what sort of person we become? Is a child's future personality already determined at birth, or is a newborn baby like a blank sheet, waiting to be written on by life? Is our personality determined by anything, or do we choose for ourselves who we are, create

ourselves out of nothing? This bestselling introduction to emotional, psychological, intellectual and social development throughout the lifespan will help you explore these questions and many more.

Written for students training for careers in the helping professions, including nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, teachers and counsellors, the book covers topics which are central to understanding people whether they are clients, service users, patients or pupils. Following the shape of a human life, beginning with birth and ending with death, it combines theoretical concepts and reflective learning to help you develop an understanding of what makes human beings grow and change over their lives to inform your decisions and professional practice.

Chris Beckett qualified as a social worker in the 1980s, and worked in the field for 18 years, first as a social worker and then as a manager, latterly as the manager of a children and families social work team.Like most social workers who qualified at that time, he started out as a 'generic' social worker, working with a range of service users including children and families, old people, and people with mental health problems and disabilities, but his predominant area of work was always with children and families.

He moved into academic social work in 2000, working first at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and then at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.In addition to his social work text books, he has published academic articles on a variety of topics including the use of military language in social work, the importance of realism as an ethical principle, and statistics from Sweden about child abuse, following the legal ban there on corporal punishment.His main research area has been decision-making in court proceedings about children, and decision-making about children more generally.

Chris has a parallel career as a writer of literary science fiction, and has achieved some acclaim in this field.He won the Edge Hill Short Fiction prize for his story collection, The Turing Test, and the Arthur C. Clarke award for his novel Dark Eden.He now divides his time between his academic career and his fiction writing.More information about his fiction can be found at .His view is that 'academic' and 'creative' writing have more in common than might at first sight appear: in both cases the author begins with a jumble of ideas that seem to him to be in some way linked together, and attempts, in large part by a combination of intuition and trial and error, to impose some shape and structure.

Chris has three adult children, and lives in Cambridge with his wife Maggie and sundry animals.

The Birth of a Human Being: What Makes Us Who We Are?

The Balancing Act: Psychodynamic Insights

A Secure Base: The Importance of Attachment

The Emergence of Reason: The Developing Ability to Understand

Making Connections: Ideas from Behaviourism

Who Am I Going to Be? Adolescence, Identity and Change

Acting Like a Grown-up: Challenges of Adulthood

Access to Adulthood: Growing up with a Disability

No Man Is an Island: Family Systems and Their Life Cycle

It Takes a Village: ASociological Perspective

Coming to a Conclusion: Themes in Old Age

That Good Night: Death, Dying and Bereavement

Table Of Contents

About Chris Beckett