Arnett & Jensen Development Series

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Clark University
Lene Arnett Jensen, Clark University

A cultural approach to development

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett and Lene Arnett Jensen’s human development, child development, and adolescent development titles examine the process of development through the lens of the amazing range of human cultural diversity.

The author team explores the various cultural pathways of development that humans have forged in response to their local conditions and the creative inspiration of their imaginations. By adopting a cultural approach, the authors challenge students to think culturally so that when they apply developmental research to the work they do or to their own lives they understand that there is—always and everywhere—a cultural basis to development.

Authors Jeffrey Jensen Arnett and Lene Arnett Jensen discuss the cultural approach to development and Revel.

Why the frog on the cover of the texts?

The Chinese have an expression that loosely translates as “the frog in the well knows not the great ocean,” and it is often used as a cautionary reminder to look beyond our own experience and not assume that what is true for ourselves is true for everyone else as well. All of us are like that frog, in a way. We’ve grown up in a certain culture (or cultures). We’ve learned to think about life in a certain way. And, most of us don’t realize how broad and diverse our world really is. The goal of these texts is to rise out of the well together, by taking a cultural approach to understanding development.

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