Caretaker-infant interaction within the first year of life was studied in a group of 10 Wolof infants. The pattern of caretaker-infant interaction was more strongly related to age of infant than any other variable investigated. The often-found result that African infants show precocious development within the first year was confirmed for the…

Based on the position that cultural ideologies shape child development, many developmental analyses have focused on analyzing cultural conceptions of independence and interdependence. Less attention has been paid to charting the developmental sequences of children's independent and interdependent behavior that are ostensibly shaped by cultural…

From a symposium on Cross-Cultural Studies of Mother-Infant Interaction at the Biennial Meeting for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, Minn., April 2, 1971. (MB)

Comments on Bradley's interpretation (PS 522 367) of Darwin's baby observations in this issue. Argues that Bradley reduced Darwin to a mere rhetorician, exaggerated Erasmus Darwin's influence, and diminished the importance of intertextual links in Darwin's own previous writings. Disagrees that Darwin's primary motive was rhetorical and suggests…

Comments sympathetically on Bradley's interpretation (PS 522 367) of Darwin's baby observations in this issue. Draws from Bradley to provide a sketch of the politics of child development as a human enterprise, and questions the view of developmental psychology as a positivistic, value-free field. (TM)

Responds to commentaries by Keegan and Gruber on Bradley's article in this issue, refuting charges of oversimplification of Darwin's ideas. States that the Darwin example undermines the notion that developmental psychology is insulated from cultural preoccupations, arguing that Darwin is important for introducing a new psychological poetic.…

Notes that Charles Darwin's observations on babies are not examples of data collected to test hypotheses. Draws from Bakhtin to argue that they extend and vary existing modes of discourse, primarily debates about the place of instinct in language acquisition, traceable to his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin. Concludes that the significance of Darwin's…

Focuses on the struggle of American psychologists with the question of objectivity and the observer's role, notes Titchener's description of the dangers of subjectivity in observation, and describes the phenomenological approach to observation. Discusses the awareness of baby diarists of the potential problems with the method related to its…

Evaluates empirical studies on child development. Suggests that most such research consists of studies of a priori, nonempirical, logical relations between concepts, whose definitions guarantee the relationship studied. Argues that hypotheses are empirical if variables involved are semantically and logically independent. Research that is not based…

From a symposium on Cross-Cultural Studies of Mother-Infant Interaction at the Biennial Meeting for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, Minn., April 2, 1971. (MB)

From a symposium on Cross-Cultural Studies of Mother-Infant Interaction at the Biennial Meeting for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, Minn., April 2, 1971. (MB)

Five symposium papers evaluate the usefulness of ideas associated with the life-span view for enriching, highlighting, or expanding issues, theory, and research pertinent to change processes during infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and for intervention programs during these periods. (Author/MP)

In this article particular attention is paid to research directly or indirectly relevant to child development programs and supplemental child care. Emphasis is given to the integration of findings, the identification of unaddressed questions, and methodological problems. (MS)

Comments on the ideas espoused by Smedslund (PS 522 552) in this issue. Agrees to the idea of spending more intellectual energy in distinguishing between a priori and empirical hypotheses but emphasizes that concepts are not always accurate reflections of reality and that even empirical disconfirmation of an a priori hypothesis sometimes can…

Identifies three categories of baby diaries--scientific, educational, and domestic--prevalent from the late 18th to late 19th century in Western Europe and the United States. Discusses the diarists and recurring themes in the diaries, such as the nature of instinctive behaviors and recapitulationism. Explores contemporary uses of the diary method.…