Arnold Gesell: A Biography Of This Psychologist, Philosopher And Pediatrician

Arnold Gesell was an American psychologist, philosopher, and pediatrician who studied child development. His work as a teacher and writer between the years 1920 and 1950 quickly positioned him as one of the great experts on paternity and child rearing in North America.

However, he has been more recognized because he developed a very important research method for modern psychology: the Gesell camera. In this article we review the biography of Arnold Gesell, as well as some of the repercussions that his work has had on studies on child development and how he invented the observation camera that bears his name.

Biography of Arnold Gesell: doctor, philosopher and educator

Arnold Gesell (1880-1961) was born in Wisconsin, United States. He was the eldest of 5 siblings, children of a photographer and a teacher, both strongly interested in early childhood education. With the intention of also becoming a teacher, Gesell He trained from a very young age with the educator Edgar James Swift who quickly detected Gesell’s interest in child psychology and education.

Later he began to specialize in other disciplines. For example, he earned a degree in philosophy in his hometown in 1903, while training in the psychology laboratory at the University of Wisconsin as well as history and education.

He obtained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1906 and finally he also studied medicine at the University of Wisconsin, completing his doctorate in 1915. He soon served as an assistant professor at Yale University, where he founded a Child Development Clinic and worked as a school psychologist in Connecticut.

In the latter city, Arnold Gesell began studying what the development of children with disabilities was like, and then came to the conclusion that to understand that, it was first necessary to understand what the development of children without disabilities had been like. This is what eventually led him to develop some principles of child development.

Some contributions from Arnold Gesell

Gesell’s influence comes from an idea that became popular quickly and remains in the social imagination to this day: the widespread belief that there is a kind of “schedule” in child development. That is to say, a series of stages related to age and characterized by typical behaviors

Even though some previous authors, such as Sigmund Freud, had already proposed theories about child development and its stages, it was the contributions of Arnold Gesell that were positioned as a point of reference on the subject, at least during his time.

His work revolves around the proposal that the maturation process can be aided or accompanied by a thoughtfully designed environment so he quickly moved into education.

During his research, Gesell focused on different moments of child development, as well as different characteristics. Some of the most important areas were motor development, adaptive behavior and psychosocial behavior.

Theoretical influences

Gesell believed that these stages through which childhood passes reproduce the stages through which the entire development and evolution of the human species has passed. This means that his theory of child development It is strongly influenced by evolutionary theories which were very popular in the United States and Europe at the time.

Likewise, his theory is influenced by studies that took place at the beginning of the 20th century where medicine began to consider the objective of knowing children better, in addition to the fact that at the same time there was a strong debate around binarism. innate-learned.

Gesell believed that much of children’s personality and behaviors are inherited, but that one should not rush to make a diagnosis, especially in the case of those who have a disability.

It coincided that at this time Gesell came to study medicine at Yale University, where he was assigned a room in a pediatric clinic. He was in charge of treating different childhood problems Thanks to his previous training as an educator and psychologist, he placed emphasis on the bond with the parents of the children he treated, which was also considered something new, since this method was a little more like education than Medicine.

Besides, distanced itself from psychometric methods which at that time were very popular and focused on evaluating intelligence. Gesell preferred more qualitative methods, for example based on clinical observation of each child and each area.

Gesell’s camera

Influenced by his photographer father, Gesell used many technological resources in the development of his theories. For example, he frequently uses photographic and video cameras as well as one-way mirrors to be able to observe in detail how children develop.

In fact, this one-way mirror quickly became an observation camera, which consists of separating two rooms by a one-way vision mirror. The people in a room are reflected in that mirror, while the people in the continuous room not only are not reflected, but can see what is happening next to them.

The intention of this observation chamber is so that researchers can observe what is happening in the next room, without making other people feel inhibited, that is, it allows them to act more spontaneously and naturally. This camera is to this day used as a very important research and study method, and is known as the Gesell camera.

Main works

Some of his main works are The Mental Growth of the Preschool Child (“The mental development of the preschool child”) of 1925, and The Child From Five to Ten (The child from 5 to 10 years old), 1977.

In co-authorship with other authors, In both books, Gesell develops the idea of ​​the stages through which childhood passes Likewise, they are considered two of the classic works of developmental psychology.