Abstract

FERREIRA, Arthur Arruda Leal  and  ARAUJO, Saulo de Freitas. From the invention of infancy to developmental psychology. Psicol. pesq. [online]. 2009, vol.3, n.2, pp. 03-12. ISSN 1982-1247.

The aim of this paper is to present a historical discussion (based on the New History Movement and on the foucaultian genealogical analysis) concerning the origins of Developmental Psychology. The hypothesis that in the origin of this field of psychology there is a double movement, namely a) the appearance in the 16th century of religious school, the family as object of health policies, and the experience of infancy as an age of innocence; and b) the emergence in the 19th century of the new technologies of liberal government, the lay school, and a new image of childhood based on evolutionism, is proposed. Finally, the consolidation of developmental psychology, favored mainly by North-American functionalism (articulated with the New School Movement) and the success of mental tests, is described

Keywords : developmental psychology; history of psychology; history of childhood.

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