Prominent Theorists in Developmental Psychology

Nathan Sonnenfeld

Three of the most prominent theorists in Developmental Psychology that this paper will elaborate on are Granville Stanley Hall, Urie Bronfenbrenner, and surprisingly, William Shakespeare. Their contributions were the foundation for several specific areas of Developmental Psychology theory, and although often overlooked when discussing the major players in the field of Developmental Psychology, their work continues to inspire and influence psychological research and philosophy to this day. G. Stanley Halls work concentrated primarily on the applications of evolutionary theory to education and child development. He was the first to earn a PhD in Psychology in the United States (Harvard University, 1878), established the first formal laboratory of psychology in the United States while working as a professor of psychology and pedagogy at John Hopkins University, founded and edited the American Journal of Psychology (1887), the Journal of Religious Psychology (1904), and the Journal of Applied Psychology (1917); served as the first and thirty-third President of the American Psychological Association (1892-1893), and was also the first President of Clark University (1889-1920) - (Max Plank Institute, 2013). As President of Clark University, Hall organized the Clark Conference during July and September of 1909,

which allowed the relatively unknown Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to lecture to a broader audience, gain influence in America, and thrust them to becoming the wellknown figures that they are today (Clark University). Hall himself was highly influenced by Charles Darwins theory of evolution, although with a slight difference in his acceptance of Ernst Haeckels theory of recapitulation, the idea that ontogeny (the origin and development of an organism) recapitulates (repeats, and/or mirrors)

phylogeny (the evolution of a species or population). Hall used a blend of these two
theories in the foundation of his own theory of child development and understanding of the inheritance of behavior. Although upon my research and reading a couple of Halls works, I found no such explicitly stated connection, but I would be highly surprised and disappointed if Hall was not an avid reader and follower of Friedrich Nietzsches philosophical work; as evident in Halls relationship to German education and ideas of the time, as well as the similarity between Nietzsches philosophy of the ubermensch and Halls own personal ideas in Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime and Religion (1904). According to Hall,
For a period of twenty-five years the human being is passing through a series of stages, each distinct in itself and transitory< leading< to a complete development in the adult form. Transition, succession of stages, is the chief characteristic of childhood. (Partridge, 1912)

The four stages that he outlines in a childs development into adulthood are: (1) Infancy; (2) Childhood; (3) Youth; and (4) Adolescence; four stages that he also compares to the history of human evolution. Infancy, from birth until the end of the second year, is a time of physiological development and sensory experience, of which learning to walk and interact with the external world is of utmost importance, and is a period in which the infant is so completely different from how it will be as an adult that which, according to Hall, only the principles of evolution give order to:
The shape of the body, movements such as grasping and climbing, the shape and proportions of internal organs, all indicate that the characteristics belonging to the simian [(higher primate)] period of racial existence are now most dominant and are struggling with the later strata of human characters. Hall

continues, The feeding

habits of the child, his play, modes of self-defence, curiosity, social instincts, all require study with reference to the stages of life in the race centering about the simian ag e. (Partridge, 1912)

Childhood, from about two until eight years old, is defined by imaginative activity. Mental and physical actions are very similar; excessive, rapid, and not well coordinated until the end of this stage, which is entirely devoted to play in one form or another. The child is highly receptive and seeks out all sorts of knowledge. Fanciful, and inventive, the child lives in an unrealistic world in which one is self-sufficient; the child is not critical, is willing to accept any task for the sake of completing it, and

accepts whatever knowledge is given, having no concrete notion of natural law or society. Hall likens this stage to that of the savage:
In regard to fickleness and lack of power of long-sustained effort, optimism, and
freedom from care and work, close relation to nature, the tendency to personify natural objects, and to confuse the animate and the inanimate, in readiness to imitate, and act upon suggestion, the child and primitive man are much alike. Both child and savage confuse the real and the ideal, the waking life and the dream life, They are alike in the manner in which they see resemblances, in their use of analogy, in the way in which they construct language forms. The sayings of the child resemble the folk-lore of primitive peoples. (Partridge, 1912)

Youth, from around eight until age twelve is a period of practical adjustment. Activity is great and more varied than it ever will be again; health is almost at the best that it could be during the childs life, the child has much endurance, vitality, and is very resistant to mental fatigue, and, as Hall puts it: The child now acquires a life outside the home circle; his interests will never again be so independent of adult influences. Hall further describes the Youth stage:
There is great immunity to exposure, danger, and temptation. Reason, true morality, religion, sympathy, love, and aesthetic enjoyment are but little developed. The rules of the adult seem to the youth alien and arbitrary. The mind is keen and alert, reactions are immediate and vigorous. The memory is quick, sure, and lasting. Never again will there be such susceptibility to drill and discipline; such plasticity to habit or readiness of adjustment to all new conditions. (Partridge, 1912)

These quotes are especially important to understand the full context of G. Stanley Halls theory of child development and its application to the reformation of education. Hall believed that during Infancy/Childhood, that the child should be left to develop their own physical skills and ways of interacting with the world, as there is no sense in attempting to submit a mere Child to the stresses of intellectual reasoning when the mind has not yet developed enough to do so. Even in the Youth stage of child development, although this is where Hall believed that a formal education to start, he did not find it in the best interests of Youth to have to contend with a overly intellectual and moral education, as learning discipline and fine-tuning the childs physical abilities are of more importance during this stage. In connection to Haeckels recapitulation theory, Hall considers this stage in child development likened to a prolonged period of a warm, independent, secure, and stable existence in human history. The last stage of child development according to Hall is Adolescence, which lasts from about thirteen to age thirty-three. Given the wide gap here, our societys preconceived notions of this title, and his German ties, I would laugh and imagine that this stage would be better fit to be called Bildungsroman< but I would digress. These years considered as a whole, this stage is a child coming to full maturity, and in regard to Halls modified understanding of recapitulation theory, it is the individuals acquirement of the latest stratum of racial development (Partridge, 1912). It consists of the pubertal period, lasting from twelve to fifteen dependent on the childs sex, when

the childs physical maturity actualizes. A note that I want to make is how, contrary to our current understanding of health, this is considered the start of the decline of it, as growth becomes susceptible to influences from without and from within and there is danger of disorder and disease. Hall continues, The great evil threatened is that the individual may not now be able to come to full and complete maturity. Many show the effects of imperfect completion; of having been arrested or perverted, in some part or function, at some stage short of perfection (Partridge, 1912). This is also the stage about which Hall famously coined the controversially misunderstood phrase storm and stress, concerning the conflict that a child may be more inclined to encounter both internally and externally (Arnett, 1999). According to Hall, the obvious physiological cause of the Adolescent phenomena after the pleasant order of Youth is the ripening of functions and parts connected to the sexual life< with the biggest change being the excessive craving for all kinds of sense experiences. The impulse is to touch life at every point, and to expand in every faculty (Partridge, 1912). The focal point for all of these changes, Hall suggests, is the moral life: Indeed the whole meaning of adolescence is moral (Partridge, 1912). In regard to that same recapitulation theory, Hall states, This age now represents the time when, in the race, struggle became more mental than physical< It is an age before the dawn of history, in which the great thoughts of the race were in the making; it is a time that has faded from the conscious memory of man, leaving no trace, except in myth, story, and tradition (Partridge, 1912).

Urie Bronfenbrenner developed the Ecological Systems Theory, stating that human development is heavily influenced by varying environmental systems. This theory helps to clarify why we may act in a different manner around our coworkers, classmates, friends, extended family, close family, romantic partners, and by ourselves. Bronfenbrenner breaks these systems down into five categories: (1) the Microsystem; (2) the Mesosystem; (3) the Exosystem; (4) the Marcosystem; and (5) the Chronosystem. The Microsystem consists of our direct personal relationships in the context of their actuation and interaction. The theory states that we are not just influenced by these relationships, rather, that we are an integral part of the environmental system (Sincero, 2012). The Mesosystem is the interaction between the Microsystems in ones environment. An experience or relationship between ones coworkers could affect the way in which one interacts with their intimate partner in the home, or the way that one experiences the educational environment could affect ones relationships with their friends. The Exosystem is the environment that links the relationships in which one is actively participating in (Microsystem) to the environmental factors in which one does not play a role. For example, if one was highly attached to an intimate partner; if that partner goes on vacation for a while, it might affect the way that the person deals with their work, school, or friends; to a positive or negative effect.

The Macrosystem is ones culture. This could include anything from religion, to ethnicity, the country in which one lives, ones socioeconomic status, ones sexuality. A wealthy Christian homosexual Asian-American woman living In Los Angeles would have a very different environment and interactions than a poor atheist heterosexual white male living in Tennessee. The Chronosystem includes the development of ones environments over time; the transitions and major changes that occur in ones life. For example, the passing of a parent for a personal at an important stage in life could affect their lives, relationships, and environments directly for the next several years, indirectly for the rest of ones lifespan. Brofenbrenners work is highly valued because it analyzes the exact roles that different environments and interactions can play on a larger scale, in addition to the Microsystems that one may be aware of on a daily basis. This enabled, for example, organizations to focus on the reduced opportunities for students of a lower socioeconomic standing. Lastly, we come to the creative pick of prominent theorists in the history of Developmental Psychology, William Shakespeare. All the worlds a stage< the wellknown opening phrase from Jaques monologue in Act II, Scene VII of his play As You Like It, continues on to give Shakespeares theory of human development, commonly referred to as the seven ages of man:

JAQUES: All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like a snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like a furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. (Shakespeare 1623)

Shakespeare describes the seven ages of man as such: (1) Infancy; the helplessness and dependence of the newborn, (2) Schoolboy; innocent and happy, ready although unwilling to learn the ways, rules, and laws of the world, (3) Lover; hot with emotion, creatively inspired and saddened, able to attend to detail and abstractly attach meaning to the physical world, recognize symbols, (4) Soldier; Reverent for order and structure, but still hot-headed and idealistic, willing to die to his identity, (5) Justice; wise and educated, self-conscious, able to reap the fruits of hard work and sacrifice, (6) Old Age; shrinking physically and in personality, losing a mental grip on reality although still clinging to childhood memory, and finally (7) Second Childhood; on ones deathbed, oblivious to the external world, losing all that allowed the man to interact and understand. There was never more creative of a theorist of Developmental Psychology.

Bibliography
Arnett, J. J. (1999). Adolescent storm and stress, reconsidered. American Psychologist, 54(5), 317-326. Retrieved on April 7, 2013 from http://uncenglishmat.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/3/4/1434319/arnett.pdf Clark University. The Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung Lectures at Clark University. Retrieved on April 7, 2013 from http://www.clarku.edu/research/archives/archives/FreudandJung.cfm Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. Hall, Granville Stanley. Retrieved on April 7, 2013 from http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/people/data?id=per297 Partridge, G. E. (1912). Genetic Philosophy of Education - an Epitome of the Published Educational Writings of President G. Stanley Hall of Clark University. New York: Sturgis & Walton. Retrieved on April 7, 2013 from http://archive.org/stream/cu31924013061209 Shakespeare, W. (1623). As you like it. (Act. II, Scene VII). Retrieved on April 7, 2013 from http://www.monologuearchive.com/s/shakespeare_030.html Sincero, S. M. (2012, March 14). Explorable. Retrieved on April 7, 2013 from http://explorable.com/ecologicalsystems-theory Stanley Hall, G. (1906). Youth: Its education, regimen, and hygiene. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved on April 7 2013 from http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/9173/pg9173.html