Originally published in 1933, this volume was the result of many years’ careful first-hand study of child psychology enriched by the author’s unusually wide experience in dealing with the subject with students. It was intended to follow the development of children from infancy to adolescence, but was cut short due to the author’s untimely death. The book makes available the results of modern experimental work of the time, much of which was published in scattered journals. Chapters deal with the development of sensory and muscular control, including walking and talking, and with the development of the intellectual, emotional and social life of children up to three years of age. A pioneer in the development of experimental psychology Hazlitt’s work can now be enjoyed again in its historical context.

Originally published in 1976, here is a comprehensive account of the role of cognitive styles in early childhood. The author considers the possible precursors of these styles in infancy, and offers a new classification scheme that helps to clarify the relation of cognitive styles to ability and intelligence. In separate chapters, field independence–dependence, reflection–impulsivity, breadth of categorization, and styles of conceptualization are examined, along with a chapter on the interrelationships between these styles. The final chapter integrates and critically summarizes the significance of cognitive styles during the early years of life. Throughout the volume the author attempts to link cognitive styles with other theoretical constructs (for example, unilinear versus multilinear models of development, Inhelder and Piaget’s studies of classification stages), and finally, the author advances a set of seven conclusions to reflect the contemporary state of knowledge in regard to the character and function of cognitive styles during the early years of life. This volume provides information about the beginnings of cognitive styles in infancy and the course of their development in preschool years. Research is examined both from the viewpoint of developmental change and individual differences among children. The role of sex differences in cognitive styles is thoroughly examined, and, contrary to earlier claims of ‘no difference’, the author convincingly demonstrates that females manifest clear-cut superiority across a wide band of cognitive functions during the pre-school years.

Originally published in 1983, in the two decades prior to publication, specialised neonatal units for the treatment of sick or preterm babies had been set up in most major neonatal centres. In the early years these units did little to prevent separation of parents and babies and evidence accumulated of the ill effects of this situation. In addition, we had gradually become aware of the difficulties of building a relationship with a sick or immature baby even under more ideal circumstances. This book, in a series of authoritative review chapters, sets out to describe the process by which social relationships develop after birth and the ways in which this process may be distorted by separation, the condition of the baby or by the process of medical treatment. Experienced practitioners describe practical steps which may be taken to support parents and foster their relationship with their babies in treatment situations. The final section of the book examines the organisation of neonatal care in a number of widely different settings and indicates that diverse approaches may be successful in achieving the same ends.

In the late 1960s, after a period of intense acceleration of the pace of research on human infancy, a number of investigators – some anthropologists, some psychologists, some psychiatrists and paediatricians, and even a few ethologists – developed the conviction that certain contributions to the understanding of infancy would come from, and perhaps only come from, cross-cultural and cross-population studies. This book, originally published in 1981, represents part of the first fruit of that conviction, and its impressive range of chapters justifies not only the belief itself but also the several rationales behind it.

Originally published in 1984, this book is a developmental psychology text with substantial evolutionary and cross-cultural work. It presents cognitive developmental issues, as well as personality, social and socialization issues, with an emphasis on culture. It also includes education-related research, such as material on schools, reading, mathematics, and IQ.

It is now well over a hundred and fifty years since the first celebrated geographical explorations of Africa took place. However, it was many years before there began quests of a different kind – the investigation of behaviour, personality, attitude and ability among Africa’s people. Originally published in 1975, this book is an account of that work: the first explorations in Africa of psychology. In an exhaustive and well-documented report the author, a psychologist who had himself done research in Nigeria, Uganda and who had lectured at Makerere University, drew together the main threads of the research carried out so far, putting the issues in an African perspective but anchoring them firmly within the framework of modern psychological thinking and technique of the time. Are there any common personality and intellectual characteristics among Africans? How does weaning affect African child development? How have Africans’ feelings developed about city life and industrial work? The questions the author considers range from the broad-based to the specific. The challenges which lay ahead for African investigators then moving into the mainstream of the work are also discussed. But perhaps above all the book made a convincing case for psychology becoming a relevant and finely honed discipline in Black Africa, characterised by practical application to Black African society. Each chapter covers a defined area of modern psychology of the time and presents a comprehensive survey in a language no more technical that the subject warrants. At the time is was felt this book would be invaluable to students of Africa secondary education whose course included a psychology component and to African students beginning a degree course in psychology. It would also have provided an informative supplement to courses in medicine, development studies, political science, sociology and anthropology.

Originally published in 1983, Reflections on Self Psychology records the development of a powerful initiative to alter psychoanalytic theory and practice, and an evaluative questioning of this initiative. It presents a dialogue that developed at the Boston Symposium of 1980 between vigorous proponents of self psychology, equally energetic critics, and many participants between these polar positions. This book attempts to capture within its pages not only the content of what was presented, explored, and evaluated in Boston, but also a sense of the people, about 1,000 strong, who exchanged their ideas on and off the podium – and the remarkable spirit of open inquiry that invigorated these proceedings. The book, as was the meeting, is organized to explore four subjects: the development of the self: infant research; the implications of self psychology for psychoanalytic practice; self psychology and psychotherapy; and the implications of self psychology for psychoanalytic theory. The final section of the book is devoted to an essay by Heinz Kohut that provides an integrated response to the issues and criticisms raised in the course of the symposium. This essay while based on extemporaneous responses by Kohut during different phases of the meeting, is, in its written version, a cohesive, carefully revised, and edited statement prepared in the mellowing period following the meeting and before Kohut’s untimely death.