DEVELOPMENTS IN CHILD-PSYCHOLOGY FROM THE 1960S TO THE 1990S

Although early 20th-century academic psychologists studied and theorized about child development, this field was usually institutionalized in departments of home economics and education rather than psychology and it came to be largely descriptive rather than theoretical. Physical growth, hygiene, and IQ were major topics, and learning and memory were studied more often as educational than psychological topics. The emergence of "experimental child psychology" beginning in the mid-l950s led to the return of child development to psychology and to the emergence of child cognitive psychology in the 1960s and the 1970s. One consequence was that child psychology became more and more theoretical and less and less practical during the 1960s and 1970s. The emergence of life-span developmental psychology around 1970 led to increased communication between child psychologists and gerontologists, but with much "cultural lag" both ways. Practical or everyday problem solving began to be strongly emphasized in research and theory on cognitive aging in the 1980s and it has been reemerging in child psychology, along with increased interest in other practical and public policy issues. The article ends with predictions about developments in the next 30 years. © 1993 Academic Press. All rights reserved.