Book excerpt: Social Incentives: A Life-Span Developmental Approach presents a developmental perspective about universal social goals, one that provides an examination of human motivation over the life span. The book aims to discover the kind of goals people display in their interactions with one another, how to understand them, how are they acquired, and how do they help in understanding human social behavior. Discussions on the theory of social incentives from the point of view of developmental psychology; social motivations during the different stages of life; and the socialization process based on a life-span developmental model of social motivation brings us closer to understanding the topic. Social and developmental psychologists, motivational experts, and clinicians will find the text invaluable.