a
branch of
psychology which
studies the human being in development from
birth to
maturity. During the first third of this century, parents were advised not to spoil their
babies by picking them up every
time they cried, to feed them according to a
fixed schedule, to toilet train them within their first year. During the 1940s, the
trend shifted toward more permissive child-
care methods. Views on child development were being influenced by
psychoanalytic theory, which stressed the
importance of the child's emotional
security and the "damage that might result from harsh
control of natural impulses."
See also psychology in this glossary. —Conquest of Chaos Approved Glossary (8.7.92)