Psychology helps us understand not only ourselves, but also our children. Scientists have tried since ancient times to figure out how a person develops, what motivates him and what is the essence of the children's worldview. A very large contribution to the modern science of children, pedology, was made by the famous American psychologist Granville Stanley Hall. His works were created in the late nineteenth - early twentieth centuries.
History of creation
From the beginning of his career, Stanley Hall trained in W. Wund's psychological laboratory as a student. His main area of study at that time was muscle sensitivity and its role in the perception of space. After he began to engage in child psychology, namely the practical problems of schoolchildren. At the end of the nineteenth century, he managed to organize the first experimental psychological laboratory in America. It was there that he began to study the mental development of children.
Special attention of the scientist was attracted by adolescents. Based on his writings, he organized the publication of the first journals devoted to these problems in psychology. Hall made an equally serious contribution to the creation of the first professional community of US psychologists. It was he who initiated the creation of an association of psychologists, where he invited Sigmund Freud. We can safely say that Stanley became the cause of the emergence of American psychoanalysis.
Fame
But all of Hall's accomplishments fade compared to his studies of the psychological development of children. Of course, many were interested in child psychology, but before that no one had posed it as the primary and main task in research. It was Granville who first talked about how the human psyche develops in the process of adaptation to a certain environment. The basis of the analytical data was mainly taken primarily by the general theoretical and methodological problems of the development of the psyche of the child. And Hall, as the main element of the analysis, decided to take the process of becoming the psyche of a particular teenager.
Studying teenagers
For the accuracy of his observations, the psychologist developed special questionnaires that helped him study the various psychological aspects of young men. Immediately, he distributed questions to teachers so that they would pass them on to their children. They were supposed to show how the younger generation looks at the world.
After some time, they decided to create separate questionnaires for parents and educators to check whether ontogenesis and phylogenesis actually pass almost the same way. The uniqueness of these tests was that in addition to testing knowledge, attitudes towards the world and other people, children should talk about experiences, moral feelings, and religious beliefs. They also addressed the issues of early memories, danger and joy of the child.
Haeckel Muller's Law
After receiving the responses, a statistical analysis began. He helped to compose a holistic perception of the psychological characteristics of children of different age categories. Hall studies also provided a way to characterize children. They helped to look at the situation not only from the point of view of an adult, but also through the eyes of a child.
Through his research, Hall realized that the basic biogenetic law is best suited to explain mental development. It was formulated by a student of Darwin - Haeckel. But there is one important inaccuracy in it, Haeckel was convinced that the embryo, as long as it exists in the form of an embryo, goes through all the stages that humanity has for all time. According to Hall, this law applies not only to the child in the womb, but also to the development of his psyche already in childhood. And that the construction of the psyche of the baby occurs according to the same principles as that of an adult. That is how the theory of recapitulation of S. Hall was born.
Theory basis
According to the psychologist, all stages of the development of the psyche of the child and their content are genetically laid, and that is why a person cannot avoid or ignore some part of its construction. Hall's work was continued by his apprentice, Getchinson. Based on the theory of recapitulation, he broke the process of mental development of the child into specific periods. As the main criterion, he took the way in which the child earns his own food.
In other words, Getchinson decided that the method of obtaining food is important not only for biological, but also for the mental development of man. It is worth noting that the real facts of changes in the characteristics of nutrition in children completely coincided with Hall theory. Thus, taking the basic biogenetic law as the starting point for explaining mental development, he was able to identify five main phases.
The main phases of development
It should be noted that the phase boundaries are too blurry, and the end of one period does not coincide with the beginning of the following:
- The first phase passes from birth to five years of age. Children constantly dig and dig (for example, games with buckets and shovels in the sandbox).
- The second phase is from five to eleven years. Here hunting and capture prevail. This is manifested in the fear of strangers, the manifestation of aggression, cruelty. Toddlers begin to distance themselves from adults and play secretly from others.
- The third phase is from eight to twelve years. She was called a shepherd. It is expressed in the desire to have its own place. Moreover, it should be located outside the house where the child lives with his parents. The first signs of care and protection that children project on their pets also appear. In addition, during this period, especially in girls, there is a need for tenderness and affection.
- The fourth phase - from eleven to fifteen years - is agricultural. At this moment, the child wakes up interest in nature, weather, children begin to engage in gardening and floriculture. They also develop caution and observation.
- The fifth phase is from fourteen to twenty years of age. This is the development of trade and industry, or it has also been called the stage of the modern individual. Its basis is the awareness of the role of money, the exact sciences and the exchange of objects, barter.
The main conclusions of phase separation
Thanks to the theory of recapitulation and the findings of Getchinson, it became clear that starting from eight years old, the child is entering an era of civilized development. Accordingly, it is precisely this age that is ideal for initiating systematic training; at an earlier age, this is impractical due to the development of the child's psyche. Moreover, it was Hall's theory that allowed him to conclude that training should be built on to a specific stage of mental development.
Children training
The main idea of the theory of recapitulation is that the child must undergo all stages of mental development for a normal perception of the world and a healthy perception of himself. If the baby fixes at some stage, then this will cause deviations and anomalies in the human psyche in the future.
Realizing that the passage of these phases is necessary, Hall decided to create a special mechanism that made it possible to simplify the transition between these stages. Since the child does not have the opportunity to be present in all situations that humanity has gone through, he proposed to recreate them in the form of a game. It was this idea of his, based on the theory of recapitulation, that led to the emergence of "war", "robber Cossacks" and other games of this type.
According to the psychologist, adults under no circumstances should impede children in the manifestation of instincts, as this helps children survive situations genetically embedded, learn from them and overcome children's fears.
Pedology
This is a comprehensive science about children, developed by Hall, the fundamental idea of which is interest in children of various kinds. It made it possible to comprehensively study all the problems that arise when working with children, from the questions of the baby’s health to the level of education of his parents. But over time, the need to study a child so globally fell away and the psychological aspect came to the fore.
Theories and conclusions obtained through a practical study of pedology are still used in all educational institutions. Thus, the theory of recapitulation in psychology has become the basis for the study and understanding of the development of children. Many twentieth-century scholars from various fields of science were interested in pedology and even dedicated their lives to it. Solving children's problems, it was possible to avoid many mental disorders of patients already in adulthood. In general, Hall was able to make a great contribution to the development of modern child psychology.
Conclusion
The theory of recapitulation was able to open the veil of development of the child and his psyche. The proof that this is not only a psychological, but also a genetic process, made it possible to find out that a child is simply not able to avoid going through all stages of development, and any fixation or suppression of their expression gives rise to mental problems for life. So it has become easier for adults to understand when to start teaching a child and at what points you can not forbid him to do those things that adults seem strange or unnecessary.
In other words, we can safely say that Hall managed to explain a lot in the behavior of children. Growing up, they must survive the experience of all mankind, and this, you see, is not so simple. And any interference in this process can leave irreparable consequences. In other words, Hall managed to protect the psyche of many children from unconscious harm from adults.