Historical and
Theoretical View
of Infancy &
Childhood
National Public Radio & Orphanages (2:32)
Russian Orphanages
• How is this
orphanage
environment likely to
influence the
development of these
Russian children?
Sections of Development:
Physical, Motor, Language, Cognitive,
Emotional, Social, Moral
How are children different
from us?
Middle Ages
• Source– Paintings are primary source
Middle Ages
• Source– Paintings are primary source
• Parenting Practices
– Cared for by others or
– Fostered out
• Info based on 1 social class- Which one?
1600s The Reformation
•
•
•
•
Revised image of childhood
Childhood as distinct
Children as naturally evil
Emphasis on harsh punishment
1800s
• Diaries tell us…
• Children known to labor with adults
• 1833 study- children in English factories
– 12 hour work day for 5 yr old, not harmful
– 10hr workday (+ 2 for religion ed): more effective
• 1890s Hall formed Child Study Association
• 1912 US Children’s Bureau- Protect welfare of
children
Early Pioneers in
Child
Development
• Baby Diaries– First interest in child activities
– Descriptive catalog
– Regular/irregular observations
• Problems?
– Objectivity?
– Single infant?
– 3 baseball players
Who’s Who
• Not developmental psychologists
• Dietrich Tiedemann
– First baby diary (1787)
• Darwin- Studied?
– Avid record taker
• 1877 “Origin of Species”
– “sub-human” development
Who’s who
• G. Stanley Hall- Late 19th century
– Questionnaires to study child thinking
• Normative data
– “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”
– Development follows a stage-like progression
• Freud- early 20th century
–
–
–
–
–
Observations with adults
Child experiences emotionally significant
Inborn sexual and aggressive drives
Stages of child development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital)
Issues later in life caused by unresolved conflicts in early life
Behaviorism
• John Locke
– Tabula Rasa
“The little, and almost insensible impressions on
our tender infancies, have very important and
lasting Consequences; And there ‘tis, as in
the Fountains of some Rivers, where a gentle
Application of the Hand turns the flexible
waters into Channels, that make them take
quite Contrary courses, and by this little
Direction given them at first in the Source,
they receive different Tendencies, and arrive,
at last, at very remote, distant places”.
-Thoughts Concerning Education (1699)
Behaviorism
• Locke, Watson & Skinner
– Tabula Rasa
– Little Albert
– Law of Effect
• Reinforcement and Punishment
Who’s Who
• Piaget- 50s & 60s
– 3 infants, structured baby diaries
– Published combined results
– Description of the range of skill acquisition
– Simple experiments
• Imitation, object permanence
– Cognitive development through
adolescence
Who’s Who
• Vygotsky-1930s
– Socialist Russia
– Contrasted with Piaget
– Used socialism for socio-cultural theory of
cognitive development.
Who’s Who
• BoBo Doll?
• Albert Bandura
• Social learning theory
(social cognitive)
– Child development occurs
through observation,
imitation, and modeling
Who’s Who
• Bronfenbrenner- Ecological Systems Theory
• Theories too narrow
Ecological Models
Cultural Values, Laws
C
h
r
o
n
o
s
y
s
t
e
m
External Resources
Microsystem
connections
Family,
teachers
Child
Ethological Theory
• Lorenz
– Imprinting- Rapid early learning (critical
period) (Youtube- 1:05)
• Bowlby
– Attachment
Groups- 3 people each
• Thinking of your childhood
• Each person in the group take 2 different
theories (make sure all are covered)
Ecological Systems, Social Learning, Vygotskian,
Piagetian, Behaviorist, Psychodynamic
• Provide 2 examples (stories) from your
development as a child that could be
explained by that theory