John W. Santrock received his Ph.D. from the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. He taught at the University of Charleston and the University of Georgia before joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas. He has worked as a school psychologist and currently teaches educational psychology every year at the undergraduate level. In 2006, John received the University of Texas at Dallas Excellence in teaching award. His research has included publications in the Journal of Educational Psychology that focus on the contextual aspects of affectively-toned cognition and children's self-regulatory behavior as well as teachers' perceptions of children from divorced families. He has been a member of the editorial boards of Developmental Psychology and Child Development. His publications include these exceptional McGraw-Hill texts: Child Development, 12th Ed; Life-Span Development, 12th Edition; Adolescence, 12th Edition; Psychology, 7th Edition; and Educational Psychology, 4th Edition.