Carol K. Sigelman (Ph.D., George Peabody College for Teachers at Vanderbilt University) is professor of psychology at The George Washington University and until recently associate vice president for research and graduate studies and then graduate studies and academic affairs there. She earned her bachelor's degree from Carleton College and a double-major doctorate in English and psychology from George Peabody College for Teachers. She has also been on the faculty at Texas Tech University, Eastern Kentucky University (where she won her college's Outstanding Teacher Award), and the University of Arizona. She has taught courses in child, adolescent, adult, and life-span development and has… published research on such topics as the communication skills of individuals with developmental disabilities, the development of stigmatizing reactions to children and adolescents who are different, and children's emerging understandings of diseases and psychological disorders. Through a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, she and her colleagues studied children's intuitive theories of AIDS and developed and evaluated a curriculum to correct their misconceptions and convey the facts of HIV infection. With a similar grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, she explored children's and adolescents' understandings of the effects of alcohol and drugs on body, brain, and behavior. For fun, she enjoys hiking, biking, discovering good movies, and communing with her cats.
Elizabeth (Betty) Rider is Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean of the Faculty at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. After earning her degree in developmental psychology at Vanderbilt University, she taught at the University of North Carolina at Asheville for several years before moving back to her home state of Pennsylvania more than 15 years ago. She regularly teaches Psychology of Women and Developmental Psychology courses to undergraduates at an institution where student learning is the number one priority. In addition to this text, she has co-authored a popular text on life-span human development. When not writing or teaching, this single mom devotes her energies to raising… her son and working outdoors.