Humanizing Child Developmental Theory

Book excerpt: According to many introductory psychology textbooks, Westerners are placing an increasingly high value on the welfare of their children. This humanistic cultural shift has not found its way into developmental psychology courses at the college level, leaving a vital gap in curriculum at many universities. Until now. From a fresh, holistic perspective, psychology professor Eugene M. DeRobertis applies humanistic viewpoints in psychology to the study of child development. Unlike most child development texts that concentrate on the subdivisions of the child's personality, the observations and discussions here focus on the child as a whole. Drawing upon many schools of thought including American humanism, existential-phenomenology, psychoanalysis, neo-analytic theories, object-relations theory, self-psychology, and Gestalt psychology, Dr. DeRobertis opens an important dialogue to all teachers and students of psychology. Packed with illustrations, empirical findings, references, and key terms and concepts, Humanizing Child Developmental Theory delivers an overarching theoretical framework for putting developmental issues into context. A significant and accessible contribution to developmental theorizing, this groundbreaking text gives psychology instructors and their students a relevant and much-needed humanistic approach to child development.