Originally published in 1988, this is a fully revised second edition of the successful introductory textbook on developmental and educational psychology. With its cross-cultural framework, the book was aimed at students of education and psychology in multi-cultural communities as well as at those studying in the developing world.

The authors present an overview of developmental and educational psychology that does not rest on any single model of home environment. Instead, by drawing critically on a wide survey of cross-cultural data, they look at the ways in which different home environments in nuclear and extended families and differing social values can affect children's emotional, social and intellectual development. They focus particularly on the ways in which home background can influence the child's ability to cope with a formal education system.

The book relates theory to practical aspects of child care and development and leads the reader through the world of childhood, the primary school years, adolescence and youth and school and society. This second edition takes full account of new cross-cultural research, and particularly work which had been undertaken by researchers in developing countries at the time. The sections on learning and instruction incorporate recent advances in cognitive research and new sections have been added particularly in the fields of social cognition and social development.