In the 1940s, a longitudinal study was begun on the subject of how fathers' childrearing styles influenced the next generation. The researchers followed the then young men, through their own childrearing. Combining heartwarming interviews with the fathers and their firstborn children, with statistical analysis, the researchers examine the various effects that the fathers had.

This book was quite obviously written as a textbook, and it suffers from all of the deficiencies that that style has for casual readers: dry, academic text combined with scholarly jargon. However, taking that into account, I must say that it is quite an interesting read. Both touching and informative, I give this book a qualified recommendation.

For those of you who are interested in generational studies, the fathers were all of the Silent generation, while the firstborn children were uniformly Baby Boomers. Also, Messrs. Strauss and Howe and their book Generations are referenced in this book.

John Snarey's book, How Fathers Care for the Next Generation, is a superb study of men in families. Snarey draws from a four-generation, four-decade study of men to show that the impact of good fathering lasts over a life time, and even over generations. With both statistics and stories, Snarey shows how various types of fathers' involvement in their children's lives is linked to their daughters' and sons' educational and occupational success. Equally remarkable, the book shows how fathers' involvement with their children forecasts their own work success and marital happiness years later at midlife.

I have only gotten about 1/3 of the way through this book so far. What is keeping me from reading more is the technical aspect of his writing style. The book goes through case studies and presentations the author has put together... I'd rather have a more easy to read style.

Freud saw the development of the ability to form affectionate bonds through the dark glass of psychoanalysis. Bowlby and his associates have given us the ability to see the development of inter-personal relations with the clarity of the scientific method and with deep human understanding. Anyone interested in improving our ability to love one another will find this book useful.

Here we have a text that was already very good. This edition is a thorough review of major contemporary approaches to adult development. As an instructor I tend to favor a contextual lifespan approach and I found the treatment of contextual lifespan psychology to be more than adequate.

The chapter organization is good and the review questions at the end of each chapter are very useful in the course. My students are college juniors and seniors, and they find it easy to read.

I tend to avoid texts that don't do an adequate job of presenting research. This text has a sound introduction to current research in the field, and is an excellent choice for me.

Instructors looking for a good presentation of work on cognition in Adulthood will find the associated chapters useful as both a text and reference material to keep on hand for other courses, such as a 'Lifespan Psychology' course.

The new edition includes more on women, cross-cultural aging, personality and clinical aspects of aging, grandparenting, as well as much new material on aging and adaptation.

I would certainly recommend this book for any solid college level course on Adulthood.

Suzanne Prescott, PhD Governors State University University Park, IL. USA

Wolinsky states this book was written at the level of non-therapists. Much like "Trances People Live" Wolinksky describes hypnotic trances we create as children that unconsciously influence us throughout our lives. Wolinsky describes the trances of: age regression, futurizing, disconnecting, blocking out, illusioning, confusion, spiritualizing, amnesia, and trance dreaming. He gives strategies for uncovering and diffusing these trances.

Many of you who are considering buying this text are probably doing so for either a regular college course or for one of the Regents College/Excelsior College exams. I decided to earn a second bachelors degree and am working through Excelsior College. This is the required text for one of their exams. I can say that the book is thorough and covers the material that you need to know to pass the test, completely. Like many psyhcology and sociology texts, the subject matter can be dry, but the author seems to do a better than average job of dealing with this. I feel that the fact that I got an 'A' on the exam says very positive things about the text and its ability to prepare you for the testing.

I loved every page! This is not one you want to leave around for the kids to read, unless they're over thirty. A definite must-read

Elegant Parenting presents clever, emotionally savvy ways of getting to know your child, listening well, engaging cooperation, and extinguishing irritating behaviors. The authors focus on "pacing," or getting a good understanding of what your child is doing and why. They also offer stragegies from their own experience and from other parents of how to use "pacing" to direct or redirect behavior. The book offers a refreshing perspective on parenting, one that emphasizes behavior-shaping through knowing your child and individualizing interventions, rather than focusing on trite notions of discipline or punishment that are unlikely to work for all children anyway. One problem with the book is that since it is based on a seminar that the authors taught and consists of written details of class discussion. As a result, it lacks organization and a cohesive thesis or argument. Still, if you have the patience to plod through the book, reading dialogue after dialogue, you're likely to emerge with a new perspective on parenting and "discipline."

This book is a good book, and I recommend it to anybody who wants to read a book. I'm an extremely bad reader - and so may not have picked up on all the nuances, but at the end I was touched by that fuzzy feeling of truth one gets with good art. Is the end a little like D. Thomas' poem "Mourning" something or other - you know the one! - or was it my imagination.

This is a wonderful book to give on a special occasion when you want your little one to know just how much they are loved. It is a reassuring book with sweet passages such as .."I love you when you smile. I love you when you're sad. I love you when you're angry - and even when you're bad!" The illustrations show different kinds of animals with their mothers or fathers or both, which it makes it appropriate for all types of families. My only reason for rating the book a 4 rather than a 5, is that the illustrations are not very soft or appealing for such a sweet message book.