Child Psychology

Reference:

(Child Psychology. (2004). In the Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science. Retrieved from http://lib.kaplan.edu/login?url=/login?qurl=http://www.credoreference.com.lib.kaplan.edu/entry/wileypsych/child_psychology)

Incite citation: (Child Psychology. (2004) In the Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science).

Child Psychology

Child psychology deals with the personality and behavior of children, typically from conception to puberty. In the past child psychology has referred to both normal and abnormal behavior, to both theory and research, and also to the psychotherapy or counseling of disturbed children. Current usage, however, limits the term to a branch of the science of developmental psychology, specifying “child clinical” when referring to the professional practice of child psychology.

Childhood can be divided into substages: prenatal, infancy, toddlerhood, preschool, middle childhood, and later childhood. Some researchers, however, argue that development is best understood in the context of the total span of life and propose a “life span developmental psychology.” Additionally, current research has focused on the contexts that influence development, including the family, school, and peers (see Bronfenbrenner, 1989, 1993).

History

Four sorts of history can be considered. Ontogenetic history, the history of the organism from conception to death, is the basic material of human development. Phylogenetic history refers to the evolutionary development of the species. According to one theory—proposed by G. Stanley Hall in his treatise Adolescence (1904), but now largely discounted—the ontogenetic history of individuals represented a “recapitulation” or repeating of the species’s phylogenetic history.

A third sort of history refers to changes over time in the concept of childhood, corresponding to the sociocultural history of the family. Philippe Müller (1969) identified four periods in the...