Contemporary Constructions of the Child Essays in Honor of William Kessen

Originally published in 1991, this volume contains critical state-of-the-art essays on significant aspects of children's development and developmental inquiry. Among the topics examined: infant perception, action and social cognition; concept development and language; children's play; parent education; children with autism and Tourette’s Syndrome; pediatrics and child development; and science, practice, and gender roles in early child psychology. A distinctive unifying theme arises from the contributors’ discussions of substantive ideas in the context of their own impressive intellectual biographies. While providing a collective case-study in the recent history of ideas, the contributors honor the intellectual and personal influence of William Kessen.

Preface. Vision, Scholarship, and the Child: An Introduction to this Collection F.S. Kessel Part I: Human Infancy 1. Learning and Motivation at Yale A.J. Sameroff 2. Gratuity, Perception-Action Integration, and Future Orientation in Infant Vision M.M. Haith 3. Taking the Measure of Infant Mind M.H. Bornstein and L. Mayes 4. Studying Infants' Lives: Competency, Context and Variability L.R. Sherrod 5. What Parents and Experts Think About Infants K.T. Young Part II: Thinking, Language, Self 6. Concept Development in the Perspective of the Recent History of Developmental Psychology K. Nelson 7. Thought and Sound in Music and Mind M.L. Serafine 8. Varied Domains of Development: A Tale of LAD, MAD, SAD, DAD, and RARE and Surprising Events in Our RELMs K.E. Nelson 9. Bloodsuckers, Blisters, Cooked Babies, and Other Curiosities: Affective Themes in Pretense G.G. Fein 10. Finding Meaning in One's Self and Others: Clinical Studies of Children with Autism and Tourette's Syndrome D.J. Cohen Part III: Practice and Policy, History and Theory 11. Developmental Psychology in the Real World: A Paradigm of Parent Education K.A. Clarke-Stewart 12. Child Maltreatment and the Child Welfare System M.E. Lamb, D.M. Teti, K.J. Sternberg and C.M. Malkin 13. Pediatrics and Child Development: A Parallel History N.W. Hall 14. Science, Practice, and Gender Roles in Early American Child Psychology E.D. Cahan 15. On the Maturation of Developmental Psychology L.S. Siegel 16. The End of Development? D. Frye 17. What Are You Going to Do When You Grow Up? A Personal Inquiry G. Mandler 18. Nearing the End: A Lifetime of Being 17 W. Kessen. Curriculum Vitae: William Kessen. Author Biographies. Author Index. Subject Index.

Frank S. Kessel, Marc H. Bornstein, Arnold J. Sameroff