This is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the history of developmental psychology, from the pre-scientific era to the present day. Covers the first research published in Germany, America, and France during the late 19th century Examines the work and influence of key international scholars in the area Incorporates the contributions of psychologists from diverse backgrounds Pays attention to the historical research on development in adulthood and old age Highlights the relationship between the growth of developmental psychology and renewed interest in child-rearing practices
This book explores and underlines the thesis that developmental psychology cannot function fruitfully without systematic historical scholarship. Scientific thinking not only depends on empirical-analytical research, but also requires self-reflection and critical thinking about the discipline’s foundations and history. The relevance of history was made especially clear in the writings of William Kessen, who analyzed how both children and child development are shaped "by the larger cultural forces of political maneuverings, practical economics, and implicit ideological commitments." As a corollary, he emphasized that the science of developmental psychology itself is culturally and historically shaped in significant ways. Discussing the implications of these insights in the book’s introduction, Koops and Kessel stress that we need a Historical Developmental Psychology. In the book’s following chapters, historians of childhood – Mintz, Stearns, Lassonde, Sandin, and Vicedo – demonstrate how conceptions of childhood vary across historical time and sociocultural space. These foundational variations are specified by these historians and by developmental psychologists – Harris and Keller – in the research domains of emotions, attachment, and parenting. This collection demonstrates the importance of bridging, both intellectually and institutionally, the gap between the research of historians, and both current and future research of developmental psychologists. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Developmental Psychology.
This text proposes a theory of mental development in the child, which incorporates the stance that no consistent view of mental development in the individual could possibly be reached without a doctrine of the race development of consciousness--ie., the great problem of the evolution of mind. The earliest chapters (1-6) are devoted to the statement of the genetic problem, with reports of the facts of infant life and the methods of investigating them, and the mere teasing out of the strings of law on which the facts are beaded--the principles of Suggestion, Habit, Accommodation, etc. Chapter 5 gives a detailed analysis of one voluntary function, Handwriting. Then follows the theory of adaptation, stated in general terms in Chapters 7 and 8; and afterwards comes a genetic view in detail (Chaps. 9 to 16) of the progress of mental development in its great stages, Memory, Association, Attention, Thought, Self-consciousness, and Volition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved).
In 1900, Ellen Key wrote the international bestseller The Century of the Child. In this enormously influential book, she proposed that the world's children should be the central work of society during the twentieth century. Although she never thought that her "century of the child" would become a reality, in fact it had much more resonance than she could have imagined. The idea of the child as a product of a protective and coddling society has given rise to major theories and arguments since Key's time. For the past half century, the study of the child has been dominated by two towering figures, the psychologist Jean Piaget and the historian Philippe Ariès. Interest in the subject has been driven in large measure by Ariès's argument that adults failed even to have a concept of childhood before the thirteenth century, and that from the thirteenth century to the seventeenth there was an increasing "childishness" in the representations of children and an increasing separation between the adult world and that of the child. Piaget proposed that children's logic and modes of thinking are entirely different from those of adults. In the twentieth century this distance between the spheres of children and adults made possible the distinctive study of child development and also specific legislation to protect children from exploitation, abuse, and neglect. Recent students of childhood have challenged the ideas those titans promoted; they ask whether the distancing process has gone too far and has begun to reverse itself. In a series of essays, Beyond the Century of the Child considers the history of childhood from the Middle Ages to modern times, from America and Europe to China and Japan, bringing together leading psychologists and historians to question whether we unnecessarily infantilized children and unwittingly created a detrimental wall between the worlds of children and adults. Together these scholars address the question whether, a hundred years after Ellen Key wrote her international sensation, the century of the child has in fact come to an end.
This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of what is now known about psychological development, from birth to biological maturity, and it highlights how cultural, social, cognitive, neural, and molecular processes work together to yield human behavior and changes in human behavior.
Originally published in 1983, the purpose of this book was to discuss the relations between philosophy and developmental psychology, as those relations existed over the course of the history of the discipline and as they existed at that time. Although not all portions of developmental psychology are surveyed, major proponents of several key areas are represented (e.g. organismic developmental theory, stage theory, life-span-developmental psychology, and the ecological approach to development). In addition, discussion of many currently prominent issues are included (e.g. constancy and change in human development, the use of multivariate models and methods, the role of the context in individual development, and the use of developmental theory in public policy and political arenas). The diversity of approaches and of interests present in the book are representative of the breadth of theoretical and empirical interests found in developmental psychology at the time.
Life-Span Developmental Psychology: Personality and Socialization presents papers on personality and socialization. The book discusses the history, theory, and psychological approaches of developmental psychology, with focus on socialization and personality development through the life span; personality dimensions; and theories of socialization and sex-role development. The text also describes the life-span perspective of creativity and cognitive styles; continuities in childhood and adult moral development revisited; and issues of intergenerational relations as they affect both individual socialization and continuity of culture. The interactional analysis of family attachments; social-learning theory as a framework for the study of adult personality development; person-perception research; and the perception of life-span development are also considered. The book further tackles the potential usefulness of the life-span developmental perspective in education; the strategies for enhancing human development over the life span through educational intervention; and some ecological implications for the organization of human intervention throughout the life span. Developmental psychologists, sociologists, gerontologists, and people involved in the study of child development will find the book invaluable.
Psychology, the study of mind and behaviour, has developed as a unique discipline in its brief history. Whether as it currently takes place, or how it has been conducted over the past 140 years or so since it became recognized as a separate field of study, there has been constant debate on its identity as a science. Psychology in Historical Context: Theories and Debates examines this debate by tracing the emergence of Psychology from parent disciplines, such as philosophy and physiology, and analyzes key topics such as: the nature of science, itself a much misunderstood human activity often equated with natural science; the nature of the scientific method, and the relationship between data gathering and generalization; the nature of certainty and objectivity, and their relevance to understanding the kind of scientific discipline Psychology is today. This engaging overview, written by renowned author Richard Gross, is an accessible account of the main conceptual themes and historical developments. Covering the core fields of individual differences, cognitive, social, and developmental psychology, as well as evolutionary and biopsychology, it will enable readers to understand how key ideas and theories have had impacts across a range of topics. This is the only concise textbook to give students a thorough grounding in the major conceptual ideas within the field, as well as the key figures whose ideas have helped to shape it.
Developmental Psychology: A Student's Handbook is a major textbook that provides an up-to-date account of theory and research in the rapidly-changing field of child development. Margaret Harris and George Butterworth have produced an outstanding volume that includes recent research from Britain, Europe, and the USA. The text is designed for undergraduate students who have little or no prior knowledge of developmental psychology. Key features include: Specially designed textbook features, such as key term definitions, chapter summaries, and annotated further reading sections Over 95 figures and tables, to illustrate principles described in the text Additional boxed material, to add further insight and aid understanding Clear, user-friendly layout, to make topics easy to locate The book places developmental psychology in its historical context, tracing the emergence of the field as an independent discipline at the end of the 19th century, and following the radical changes that have occurred in our understanding of children's development since then. The development of the child is covered in sequence: through conception, pre-natal development, birth, infancy, and the pre-school years, to the achievements of the school years, and the changes that occur during adolescence. Each period is addressed in terms of cognitive, social, and linguistic development, including discussion of reading, spelling, and mathematical development. There is also consideration of comparative research concerning the development of cognitive abilities in other primates. Developmental Psychology: A Student's Handbook is essential reading for all undergraduate students of developmental psychology. It will also be of interest to those in education and healthcare studying child development.
