Humanizing Child Developmental Theory


Book Description

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.




The Whole Child


Book Description

Though it is not well known, humanistic psychologists of various persuasions have been studying child development for over a century with very little recognition. The purpose of The Whole Child is to bring together Eugene M. DeRobertis's most recent efforts to establish the foundations of an existential-humanistic approach to child development and further develop existential-humanistic self-development theory (EHSDT). The philosophical-anthropological foundations of the book reach back as far as Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. Existential-humanistic child psychology is rooted in the works of individuals like Wilhelm Dilthey, Edmund Husserl, Alfred Adler, William Stern, Kurt Koffka, Heinz Werner, Kurt Lewin, Charlotte Bühler, D. W. Winnicott, Ernest Schachtel, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Karen Horney, Carl Rogers, M. J. Langeveld, Heinz Kohut, and others. Contemporary applications in the current volume include the role of the imagination in child development, embodiment, well-being research, dynamic systems approaches to child development, and the impact of consumer culture on self-development. This book is the follow-up volume to his Humanizing Child Developmental Theory: A Holistic Approach (2008).




Exploring Developmental Theories


Book Description

Through the evaluation and integration of developmental theories, this volume proposes a new structural/behavioral model of development. Dr. Horowitz’s model helps account for both the behavioral development of children (with extensions across the life-span) and for the universal and non-universal characteristics in human behavioral development. Exploring Developmental Theories also sheds a new and different light on the nature- nurture or heredity-environment controversy and on the topic of continuity and discontinuity in development. Exploring Developmental Theories: *examines the concepts of stage, structure, and systems; organismic theory; and general system theory; *analyzes open and closed systems as well as organismic and mechanistic world views; *integrates the concepts associated with organismic and mechanist world views; *examines learning mechanisms and processes that foster the acquisition of behavior, and *discusses the strengths and weaknesses of Gessel, Piaget, and behaviorism in accounting for behavioral development.




The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology


Book Description

The Second Edition of the cutting edge work, The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology, by Kirk J. Schneider, J. Fraser Pierson and James F. T. Bugental, represents the very latest scholarship in the field of humanistic psychology and psychotherapy. Set against trends inclined toward psychological standardization and medicalization, the handbook offers a rich tapestry of reflection by the leading person-centered scholars of our time. Their range in topics is far-reaching—from the historical, theoretical and methodological, to the spiritual, psychotherapeutic and multicultural. The new edition of this widely adopted and highly praised work has been thoroughly updated in accordance with the most current knowledge, and includes thirteen new chapters and sections, as well as contributions from twenty-three additional authors to extend the humanistic legacy to the emerging generation of students, scholars, and practitioners.




Young Children’s Existential Encounters


Book Description

This book is a psychoanalytic observation of five children’s existential encounters in their ordinary life at the nursery. It is among the first within psychosocial literature to go beyond adult experiences and explore the existential in young children’s lives as it plays out in their everydayness in symbolic and sensory articulations and in relationship with others; including with the author as someone who arrived looking for it. The author offers analysis in the form of a writing inquiry into meaning, by means of an on-going movement between the self and the other, the interior and the exterior, and psychoanalytic and existential-phenomenological ideas. This is illustrated through a kaleidoscopic account of May, Nadia, Edward, Baba and Eilidhs’ encounters with nothingness, strangeness, ontological insecurity, death and selfhood as these emerged in the time they spent with the author embodying different forms – from concrete objects to dreams – exemplifying an attunement to existential ubiquity. With its relational ground, this work suggests the potential for adults – including researchers, therapists, trainees, educators and parents – to attune to their own existential encounters as a path to understanding those of children.




Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science, Theory and Method


Book Description

The essential reference for human development theory, updated and reconceptualized The Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science, a four-volume reference, is the field-defining work to which all others are compared. First published in 1946, and now in its Seventh Edition, the Handbook has long been considered the definitive guide to the field of developmental science. Volume 1, Theory and Method, presents a rich mix of classic and contemporary theoretical perspectives, but the dominant views throughout are marked by an emphasis on the dynamic interplay of all facets of the developmental system across the life span, incorporating the range of biological, cognitive, emotional, social, cultural, and ecological levels of analysis. Examples of the theoretical approaches discussed in the volume include those pertinent to human evolution, self regulation, the development of dynamic skills, and positive youth development. The research, methodological, and applied implications of the theoretical models discussed in the volume are presented. Understand the contributions of biology, person, and context to development within the embodied ecological system Discover the relations among individual, the social world, culture, and history that constitute human development Examine the methods of dynamic, developmental research Learn person-oriented methodological approaches to assessing developmental change The scholarship within this volume and, as well, across the four volumes of this edition, illustrate that developmental science is in the midst of a very exciting period. There is a paradigm shift that involves increasingly greater understanding of how to describe, explain, and optimize the course of human life for diverse individuals living within diverse contexts. This Handbook is the definitive reference for educators, policy-makers, researchers, students, and practitioners in human development, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and neuroscience.




Humanistic Contributions for Psychology 101


Book Description

Humanistic Contributions to Psychology 101 is the first of its kind: a supplemental text cataloging the major contributions of humanistic psychology often not included in general psychology courses or textbooks. The book mirrors a standard Introduction to Psychology textbook with chapters covering the typical topics while focusing on humanistic contributions: History and Methods, Sensation and Perception, Memory, Personality, and Psychotherapy, amongst others. Endorsed by five presidents of the Society for Humanistic Psychology, this makes Humanistic Contributions to Psychology 101 an ideal supplementary textbook for introduction to psychology courses. The book is written in an easy to understand language utilizing an opening vignette or example that the chapter refers back to when a difficult concept arises. The subtitle-Growth, Choice, and Responsibility-highlights main themes of Humanistic Psychology that are seen throughout the book and particularly relevant to the contemporary times. Growth is the movement away from disease-based psychology toward a goal of psychological betterment. Choice refers to an emphasis on people making intentional decisions rather than being situationally or genetically determined respondents. Responsibility points toward the ability to take control of one's actions and own them as well as recognizing oneself as an important contributor to one's community. Humanistic Contributions for Psychology 101 is a remarkable book in terms of clarity, scope, and community building. Whether looking for an introduction to humanistic psychology or to discover how humanistic psychology has contributed to the major topics in the field, this book is an important contribution to the field.




Using Music in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy


Book Description

There is growing evidence for the powerful role that music plays in enhancing children's cognitive, social, and emotional development. Written for a broad audience of mental health professionals, this is the first book to provide accessible ways of integrating music into clinical work with children and adolescents. Rich case vignettes show how to use singing, drumming, listening to music, and many other strategies to connect with hard-to-reach children, promote self-regulation, and create opportunities for change. The book offers detailed guidelines for addressing different clinical challenges, including attachment difficulties, trauma, and behavioral, emotional, and communication problems. Each chapter concludes with concrete recommendations for practice; an appendix presents a photographic inventory of recommended instruments.




Children and Childhood: Practices and Perspectives


Book Description

A diverse theoretical and practical collection of deliberations on children and childhood, written by scholars from all parts of the world.




The Phenomenology of Learning and Becoming


Book Description

In this text, the history of phenomenological research on learning is synthesized and brought forward into the areas of existential learning, the development of enthusiasm about learning (from childhood through adulthood), and paradigmatic creative experience. Original research findings are derived using the Giorgi method of descriptive phenomenological analysis in psychology. The results, structural and eidetic in nature, are then integrated from a holistic developmental viewpoint: that of Existential-Humanistic Self-Development Theory (EHSDT). An evolving developmental partnership between learning and creativity emerges as the proper conceptual frame for considering optimal growth and the relative maturity of situated becoming oneself (i.e., the process of self-cultivation). The resulting perspective is supported by cutting edge trends in neuroscience and related to pedagogy and education.