TOPIC 3

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES OF THE STUDY OF

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
 Introduction
• Developmental Psychology as a discipline, arose
shortly after the emergence of scientific
psychology in the latter part of the 19th c.
• In its early years, developmental psychology was
pri­marily concerned with child and adolescent
develop­ment.
• Later, adult development and aging began to as­
sume more importance.
• Developmental psychology began as a
correlational science, focusing on observa­tion
 Historical views of childhood

Views of childhood have always reflected the culture in

which they emerged.
i. Ancient Greece & Rome
• Children stayed home with their parents until around
age 7, then began special training for future occupation,
i.e. of their parents or another family member.
• Training depended on social standing and gender.
• The basic ideas of a well-rounded, holistic, or
humanistic approach to education can be traced back to
ancient Greek philosophers.
 Early Philosophers
i) Plato (428-348 B.C.)
• He believed that all children were born with a defined
amount of knowledge, and that education served to
'remind' them of this inherent understanding of the world
• Organized the first rudimentary 'school' through his
Academy.
• The Academy was a gathering place, where people would
come to lecture, discuss, and learn.
• He advised that nurseries be established in the
community, with a curriculum full of games, music,
drama, and storytelling to reinforce the values children
should learn.
• He rejected the idea that education should be reserved
for males and the notion of corporal punishment, but
he advocated for infanticide as a form of
Eugenics( killing a child at birth to get the desired
characteristics as a way of improving the human race)

b) Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

• He was an empiricist – believed that knowledge can be
gained through sensory experiences and organization
of thought.
• Emphasized the development of the mind and the
body, the establishment of good habits early in life,
and recognized the value of play.
• Believed that humans could be defined as
"rational animals.
• His student - Alexander the Great, took these
teachings and spread them throughout his
empire until its eventual collapse.
• Greek educational models held strong and was
adapted by the Romans.
• The Roman state established a systematized
education for males in several cities.
• The Greeks and the Romans held rich
conceptions of children’s development
ii. Medieval times (1400 AD Fall of Rome).
• Laws generally did not distinguish between child
and adult offences
• European societies did not accord any special status
to children prior to 1600.
• Children were seen as miniature adults, dressed in
adult like clothing and pursued adult passions, but
were also seen as fragile and in need of protection.
• Due to Christianity Church ruled, and all the
unwanted children were sent to convents and
monasteries.
• Children were seen as born with original sin- the
goal of child rearing was to provide salvation.
iii. Renaissance period (1300-1600)
• Before renaissance, little progress was made and
society became dominated by the illiterate.
• Renaissance saw an increase in the number of
schools as the rulers tried to improve literacy. This
period saw a revival in classical knowledge, art,
and architecture, as esteemed scholars
underpinned a cultural and societal revival.
• Huge schools, attached to monasteries and
cathedrals developed.
• This period enriched western civilization,
although the effects were short-lived and
restricted to the clergy and nobility.
• This influx of ideas began to shape thought, as
scholars again began to explore the mind,
building upon the work of the Greeks and the
Romans.
• There was a growing belief that society is partly
responsible for care and protection of children.
• Toy making industry came into being
• Play was seen as normal and important in the
development of the child.
• Child rearing taken seriously and there was
emphasis on education.
Philosophical Bases of Developmental Psychology
From a philosophical perspective, John Locke and Jean-
Jacques Rousseau are the starting points for Western
discussions of child development.
John Locke (1632-1704)
• Argued that children are not innately bad, but are like a
blank slate ("Tabula Rasa" )
• He was an empiricist who argued that all knowledge
comes from experience
• Thus childhood experiences are important in
determining adult characteristics.
• The role of Locke and later learning theorists was to
emphasize the role of the environment in development.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
• He was a nativist and argued that children are
inherently good
• Thus innate processes are the driving force
behind development. Human development
unfolds naturally in very positive ways as long
as society allows it to do so.
• He was one of the first to argue that
development took place in stages.
Baby Biographers
• Early attempts to understand development can be
found in “baby biographies,” which are descriptive
accounts of children written by Philosophers,
biologists and educators who began to discover their
own children through observation.
• In 1774, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, a Swiss educator,
published notes based on the careful observations of
the development of his 3 1/2 year old son.
• His book reflected his own theories, which, like
Rousseau's stressed the innate goodness of the child
and the role of the child's own activity in
development.
• The German philosopher, Dietrich Tiedemann
(1748-1803) is credited with creating the first
baby biography but there was little follow-up to
his work.
• A German, biologist Wilhelm Preyer (1841-
1897), kept a detailed account of the mental
development of his son during his first 4 years.
• He published the results as “The Mind of the
Child”
• This work was frequently cited as the beginning
of modern child psychology movement.
• In America, the best known baby biography was
a col­lection of observations by Milicent Shinn
(1858-1940).
• In the 19th century, Charles Darwin, the
evolutionist, published a diary of his observations
of his son's early development.
• He saw the child as a rich source of information
about the nature of man
• Baby biographies were generally not good sources
of scientific data.
• Too often they were based on observations that
were unsystematic and made at irregular intervals.

Beginnings of Scientific Child Psychology

• During the 19th C. the history of child psychology
was influenced by Charles Darwin .
• The theory of evolution contained in The Origin
of Spe­cies was the starting point for many Western
developmental psy­chologists both European and
American.
• In addition, Darwin’s emphasis on individual
differences and ad­aptation became important
components of develop­mental psychology.

• Systematic study of larger groups of children

began toward the end of the 19th century, in what
came to be known as the child study movement.
 The Child Study Movement
• Child study Movement was the attempt to apply
the methods of modern science to the
investigation of children to discover the laws of
normal child development.
• The child-study movement arose in late 19th C in
several Western countries
• It was inspired by a number of social reform
movements that aimed to improve the health and
welfare of children.
• The connection between child study, schools,
teachers, and movements for educational reform
was strong
• Many reformers viewed the educational system
as the most promising avenue to improve the
conditions of children
• The movement was inclusive at first but after
the 20th C. lay researchers were excluded.
• Child study became the science of child
development and developmental psychology.
• Consequently, research into child development
became a field of academic inquiry
• It helped bring about the passage of laws
governing child labor and compulsory education.
• Educational reformers were inspired by a variety
of ideologies e.g. Darwinism
philosophical ideas of ideas of Jean-Jacques
Rousseau,
the educationalists Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi,
and Fiedrich Froebel.
Beginning of child study
Stanley Hall (1884-1924)
• initiated the child-study movement in the
United States in the 1880s.
• Hall was influenced by the evolutionary
theory of Charles Darwin
• Hall believed that child development
follows a natural evolutionary path that
can be revealed by child study.
• He also theorized that child development
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
• Believed that children are rarely aware of the
motives and reasons for their behavior as the bulk
of their mental life is unconscious
• Stressed that a child experience with parents at the
formative stages is important in determining later
personality development
• He envisioned the child moving through a series off
psychosexual stages filled with conflicts between
biological urges and societal demands
John B. Watson (1878-1958)
• founder of behaviorism
• Argued that children can be shaped into
whatever society wishes by examining and
changing the environment.
• Believed in the systematic observation of the
children’s behavior under controlled conditions.
Arnold Gesell (1920's & 1930's)
Studied children in their natural settings
He observed that certain characteristics of children
unfold naturally with maturation.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

• Children’s knowledge changes over the course of
their development
• Saw the child as actively constructing increasingly
more complex views of the world
• At each stage of development, the child is
constrained by the cognitive structures available
Life-span Psychology
• Initially, most developmental psychology
focused on the child and adolescent.
• Later attempts were made to investigate the
entire life span

• In 1777, Johann Tetens , a German physicist and

philosopher, published a book which addressed
many life-span issues still of concern today
• Friedrich Carus later argued that aging was not
simply about loss and decline, but was an
occasion for growth and perfectibility.

• Francis Galton collected data on physical and

psychological character­istics across the life span.

• Later on several longitudinal studies began to

come of age e.g. Robert Havighurst was an
active researcher on development in the middle
and later years
Recent Developments and Rights of children
• There are hundreds of organizations which are
concerned with issues of human development
today.
• Greater attention has been paid to all ages of
development thus “life-span development”
• Developmental psychologists have become
more aware of the importance of context in
development
• They have become more vocal advocates for
improving that con­text, particularly arguing for
changes in government policy.
Despite the milestones, children still face a number
of challenges in the contemporary society e.g.
• Poverty
• AIDS epidemic
• Starvation
• Poor quality health care
• Alcohol and drug abuse in adolescence
• Sexual abuse
• Poor quality education
• Child neglect
• Cultural problems
Social policy and Rights of the Child
Social policy is a national government course of
action designed to promote the welfare of citizens
including children.
• The scope and shape of this social policy related to
children are tied to the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
• The Convention is used as a framework to change
laws, policies and services so that all children are
protected, nurtured and empowered. This brings
children’s rights to the top of the agenda of any
• The UNCRC defines the child as a person under
18 years of age.
• It acknowledges the primary role of parents and
the family in the care and protection of children,
as well as the obligation of the State to help
them carry out these duties.
• The UN Convention consists of 41 articles, each
of which details a different type of right. These
rights interact with one another to form one
integrated set of rights.
These Rights are:
• Survival rights: include the child’s right to life
and the needs that are most basic to existence,
such as nutrition, shelter, an adequate living
standard, and access to medical services.
• Development rights: include the right to
education, play, leisure, cultural activities, access
to information, and freedom of thought,
conscience and religion.
• Protection rights: ensure children are safeguarded
against all forms of abuse, neglect and exploitation,
including special care for refugee children;
safeguards for children in the criminal justice system;
protection for children in employment; protection
and rehabilitation for children who have suffered
exploitation or abuse of any kind.
• Participation rights: encompass children's freedom
to express opinions, to have a say in matters affecting
their own lives, to join associations and to assemble
peacefully. As their capacities develop, children
should have increasing opportunity to participate in
the activities of society, in preparation for adulthood.
• The UN Convention includes four articles that are given
special emphasis. These are also known as ‘general
principles’. These rights are the bedrock for securing the
additional rights in the UN Convention.
• that all the rights guaranteed by the UNCRC must be
available to all children without discrimination of any kind
(Article 2);
• that the best interests of the child must be a primary
consideration in all actions concerning children (Article 3);
• that every child has the right to life, survival and
development (Article 6); and
• that the child’s view must be considered and taken into
account in all matters affecting him or her (Article 12).