Prenatal Determinants of Early Behavioral and Cognitive Development: The Generation R Study
Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Child development is fascinating in its complexity and for more than 120 years \npsychologists have applied scientific methods to its examination, but the concept of \nchild development did not receive much attention from philosophers during classical \nantiquity and the Middle Ages (Oerter & Montada, 2002). Based on his analysis of \nart work the historian Philippe Ariès (1962) assumed that the concept of childhood \ndid not exist in the medieval period and concluded that children were considered as \nlittle adults. In the medieval period, most young people were apprentices, became \nworkers in the fields and normally entered the adult world very early in life (Ariès, \n1962). \nVery important for the emergence of the concept of child development were two \nopposing philosophical views of human nature from the 17th and 18th century (De- \nHart, Sroufe, & Cooper, 2004). On the one hand, the English empiricist John Locke \n(1632-1704) argued that at birth the mind of a child is tabula rasa, “a totally blank \nslate to be written on by life’s experience” (DeHart et al., 2004). This blank slate view \nsuggests that differences among children can be explained in terms of differences in \ntheir environments (Boyd & Bee, 2009). On the other hand, Jean Jacques Rousseau \n(1712-1778) claimed that all human beings possess innate goodness and seek \nout experiences that help them grow (Boyd & Bee, 2009). According to Rousseau, \nchild development unfolds naturally in positive ways as long as society allows it to do \nso (Boyd & Bee, 2009). To this day, these two opposing views of human nature are \nstill reflected in the so-called nature-nurture debate addressing of how heredity and \nenvironment influence development.
Author: Jens Henrichs
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1642284250