James W. Vander Zanden is Professor Emeritus in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Ohio State University and previously taught at Duke University. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Professor Vander Zanden is the author of the first four editions of Sociology: The Core. His other published works include eight books and more than twenty professional articles. After earning a B.A. from King's College in Wilkes-Barre and an M.A. in counseling psychology from Scranton University, Tom taught a variety of undergraduate psychology courses at Broome Community College and worked in college admissions and then as a college counselor for several years. At age 34, he continued his formal education at Cornell University in pursuit of a Ph.D. in psychology and education. While at Cornell, Tom received a research assistantship sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, and he subsequently helped to initiate and develop one of the most productive reading research programs in the country. His experimental findings on learning styles and instructional design have been adopted by researchers and practitioners worldwide. He first won international recognition when his doctoral dissertation was selected as one of the top five in the country by the International Reading Association. Tom's focus as a college professor and educational psychologist has been on individual differences in learning and atypical development in children and adults. He takes great pride in a course he developed and teaches on human exceptionalities to over 2,000 undergraduate students who have become special education teachers, psychologists, sociologists, social workers, nurses, physical therapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, clergy, managers of non-profit agencies, and informed parents. Students often return to him to tell him that his course has changed their entire career plans and how much they enjoy working with individuals in a wide array of jobs that include a broad understanding of human development. In addition to being a professor, he has been a consultant in educational, business, and legal settings for the past 30 years and has authored numerous articles on the design of online educational materials for ease of learning and ease of use. Many of these design strategies have been incorporated into the Eighth Edition of this text. In 1996 he earned the Distinguished Article of the Year award in the Frank R. Smith Competition by the Journal for the Society of Technical Communications. He is a long-standing member of the American Psychological Association. Tom has also coached youth basketball and soccer and has taught adult religious education courses through his church. He has maintained a healthy lifestyle with a passion for basketball and golf throughout his years of professional growth and development. Corinne Crandell has earned a B.S. degree from the University at Albany and an M.S. degree from the State University of New York at Oneonta in counseling and psychology. Corinne has completed additional graduate studies in reading, special education, and learning disabilities. Corinne has had a variety of instructional experiences at the community college level teaching psychology classes for many years, has been a college counselor, has co-authored developmental psychology study guides, instructors manuals, and computerized study guides and developed the first distance learning course in developmental psychology for the SUNY Learning Network, offered over the Internet since 1997. She also supervised student interns in Broome Community Colleges human services program at nearly 40 social service agencies. For 5 years she taught in a middle school and worked with children with learning disabilities in grades 4 through 8. Additionally, she was the coordinator of the gifted and talented program for a private school district with 12 schools. Corinne has coached and judged in the regional Odyssey of the Mind program, was a board member for 5 years at our local Association for Retarded Citizens, and has taught confirmation classes to high school students for the past ten years. As a parent and a stepparent of a blended family, we bring to this text a wealth of knowledge and understanding about the issues facing single parents, stepfamilies, blended families, and families with children with special needs. Becky, now 35 and our daughter/ stepdaughter with Down syndrome, has enriched our lives in countless ways. Her brother Jim has become a special education teacher, her sister Colleen has become a caring physician, and her younger brother Patrick is a recent college graduate who is considerate of people with differences. Thus, unlike other human development texts, some information about the development of differently-abled children is included in this text along with the development of "typical" children.
