John Santrock received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1973. He taught at the University of Charleston and the University of Georgia before joining the Pro¬gram in Psychology at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he currently teaches a number of undergraduate courses and has received the University’s Effective Teach¬ing Award. John has been a member of the editorial boards of Child Development and Developmental Psychology. His research on father custody is widely cited and used in expert witness testimony to promote flexibility and alternative considerations in custody disputes. John also has authored these exceptional McGraw-Hill texts: Life-Span Development (16th edition), Adolescence (16th edition), A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development (9th edition), and Educational Psychology (6th edition).