Development : the history of a psychological concept
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Development is one of psychology's given components. Psychologists and consequently the lay public in Western cultures see childhood as well as adult character in terms of what I call here 'the developmental idea', describing a scientific category that exists 'out there' in nature. The human interior, it seems, passes through a necessary series of stages that play out over time. And so the youngest of us are only potential human beings; we do not start to display signs of 'empathy', say, until we are three, or 'logical reasoning' until we are six: or so we are told. Adult character and conduct are the desired outcome of those stages (though a few of us, it appears, never reach them even when we arrive at adulthood by calendar age)"--,Provided by publisher.