Carter V. Good

Child Development and the Genetic Method of Research

genetic research on physical and anatomical development. Other factors that have contributed to development of the genetic approach in psychology and education include: i. Recognition of the importance of the child as an individual, as emphasized by Comenius, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Herbart, and Froebel. 2. Formulation of evolutionary theories by Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, and Hobhouse. 3. Observations of the early development of children, as reported by Darwin, Taine, Preyer, Shinn, J. M. Baldwin, Stern, and G. Stanley Hall. Hall was the leader of the first stage of the child-study movement, which extended over the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the present century. 4. The psychological movements known as functionalism (sponsored by John Dewey), behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and Gestalt psychology. 5. Invention of measuring and recording instruments, especially mental tests, adapted to use in growth studies. These tools have played a prominent part in freeing the second or modern stage of child-development research from many of the errors commonly found in studies prior to 1920.