KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

• Developmental psychology

• ‘Gazing’ at children

• proprietal

• Postfigurative, configurative, prefigurative

• Paradigm

• Empiricism

• Positivism

• The experiential child

• The iniquitous child

• The virtuous child

• The competent infant

• Mechanistic, organismic, behaviourist, psychodynamic, humanistic, constructivist

Introduction

Since the first edition of this textbook was written and published in 1993 it is readily apparent to me that general and academic interest in the study of child development has increased exponentially. Notwithstanding this, a quick glance in the relevant sections of the local library or bookstore will show that through the ages children have been the subject of description by poets, novelists, philosophers and playwrights. Dietrich Tiedermann is generally acknowledged by historians of child psychology as a pioneer in the field of systematic description in child development. In 1787 Tiedermann published a study of his own child, predicting that it would soon be followed by many others. True to his prediction, the late nineteenth century was witness to a growing interest in child and adolescent development. The latter part of the twentieth century has in many ways produced a veritable harvest of knowledge regarding child, adolescent and family development.