Adolescence

1904

G. Stanley Hall (1844–1924)

The writings of Charles Darwin inspired ideas about child development among the first generation of the new scientific psychologists in America. From Darwin they drew hope that the study of the child would shed light on the mental evolution of Homo sapiens. G. Stanley Hall, one of the founders of American scientific psychology, espoused evolution as the basis for child study. In particular, recapitulation theory—the concept that ontogeny (or development) recapitulates phylogeny (or evolution)—proposed that the evolutionary history of a species is replayed in the development of individual members of a species; for example, a human fetus has gills and the beginnings of a tail at certain points in gestation. After birth, it was believed, one could trace the mental development of the human species by careful observation of the growing human child. There were also important social benefits to understanding childhood: in an increasingly complex and diverse society, child study could provide insight into creating an optimal social order.

Still, until 1904, theorists of education and psychology did not remark upon the developmental differences of older children. In 1904, Hall published a landmark two-volume study in which he described a new developmental stage: adolescence. Hall saw this period as crucial to the health of any society and believed that it held insights into the mental development of the human race. Its implications for human development are indicated by the full title of the study—Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education. He argued that this was a new stage, created by the prohibition of child labor and compulsory education. Thus instead of becoming adults, children of this age remained dependent, resulting in the storm and stress of maturing bodies and minds.

SEE ALSO Rousseau’s Natural Child (1762), Baby Biographies (1877), Zone of Proximal Development (1934), Ecological Systems Theory (1979)

Four Girls by German expressionist August Macke, 1912–1913.