Table of Contents
Acknowledgments page vii
Introduction 1
What this book is about 1
Why combine sociology and psychology? 3
Who this book is for and why it will be useful 3
Summary of the chapters: brief contents 5
1 Understanding the Life Course 10
Introduction 10
Changes affecting the contemporary life course in the UK 10
Unreality TV, people’s perceptions of human ‘nature’ and lay theorizing 14
Sociology and psychology 19
Life course sociology and life span psychology 23
Social science research methods 30
Life span psychology, life course sociology and multidisciplinarity 33
2 Traditional Psychological Approaches to Children 40
Introduction 40
Physical development and memory 41
Psychoanalytic development 44
The psychosocial approach 47
Attachment 48
Modern psychoanalytic theories and attachment 50
Cognitive development 52
Modern cognitive developmental theory 54
Learning theories 56
Language acquisition 59
Conclusion 61
3 The New Social Studies of Childhood 63
Introduction 63
Criticisms of developmental psychology 67
The ‘new sociology of childhood theorists’ and other social perspectives 73
Conclusion 86
4 Adolescence and Youth 89
Introduction 89
Adolescence and psychology 89
Youth and sociology 104
Conclusion 117
5 Young Adulthood 119
Introduction 119
Psychology and young adulthood 119
Sociology and young adulthood 128
Conclusion 147
6 Middle Adulthood 149
Introduction 149
Psychology and middle adulthood 150
Sociology and middle adulthood 160
Conclusion 172
7 Old Age 174
Introduction 174
Old age and psychology 178
Old age and sociology 187
Conclusion 197
8 Death, Dying, Grief and Loss 200
Introduction 200
Bereavement and psychology 201
The sociology of death and dying 206
Conclusion 218
Conclusion 221
Bibliography 227
Index 264
