"Psychologists have long understood that laboratory settings only approximate genuine human environments. Yet, how can the influence of the real world, with all its complexity and variability, be measured? This edited volume deals with this question by providing theoretical models and testing methods for quantifying physical and social environments that serve as contexts of human development." "This volume represents the state of the art in environmental assessment procedures and will be a welcome resource for psychologists specializing in assessment, methodology, and development."--Jacket.

Environments in developmental perspective: theoretical and operational models / Urie Bronfenbrenner -- The home environment / Robert H. Bradley -- Measuring the peer environment of American adolescents / B. Bradford Brown -- Environmental taxonomy: generalizations from research with older adults / M. Powell Lawton -- The child-care environment: conceptualizations, assessments, and issues / Sarah L. Friedman and Jo-Ann Amadeo -- Conceptualization and measurement of children's after-school environments / Deborah Lowe Vandell and Jill K. Posner -- Assessing the school environment: embedded contexts and bottom-up research strategies / Joan E. Talbert and Milbrey W. McLaughlin -- The workplace environment: measurement, psychological effects, and basic issues / Carmi Schooler -- Measurement of the physical environment as a stressor / Gary W. Evans -- The environment as culture in developmental research / Charles M. Super and Sarah Harkness -- Human development in the age of the internet: conceptual and methodological horizons / Daniel Stokols -- Celebrating complexity: conceptualization and assessment of the environment / Theodore D. Wachs.