Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/715

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CHILD LABOR. 621 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY. training, the child being employed in dnidg- erv or some simple mechanical process. Child laiior tends to depress wajres and to develop in the community an ignorant, criminal, easily pauperized element, accustomed to a low stan- dard of living. The remedies proposed are fac- tory legislation and compulsory education laws. For full bibliography for the United States, consult: American Journal of Sociology, III. (Chicago, 189!)) (contains page references to factory inspectors' reports) ; Child Labor, in .American Economic Association ptiblications. Vol. V. (Baltimore, 1899) ; two prize essays by Taylor, The Modern Factory System (London, 1891 i. See Xatioxat, KnrcATiox. Systems of; 1. uion Lkc.islatiox ; Sweating System. CHILD OF NATURE, The. A play by IMrs. Inchbald (q.v.). It "was produced at Covent (lardcn, Xoveml)er 28, 1788, and published in London. It is taken from Madame de Genlis. CHILD OF THE SEA. A surname given to Amadis de Gaul, the mediieval hero. It origi- nated in the story that, while still in his cradle, he was thrown into the ocean by his mother to ecneeal her dishonor. CHILD PSYCHOLOGY, si-kol'd-jl. The study of the mind of the child forms one depart- ment of general psychologj'. The existence of such a department implies that the mental processes of the child are, to a certain degree, unique, or at least that they demand a .special method of in- vestigation. It is difficult to say in a word what the method of child psychology is. The subject has been a[)proached from so many directions, and with so many divergent motives, that it is not easy to make one's way through the vast amount of unclassified material which has been accumuhiting for a score of years. There is no doulit that a strong incentive to the study of the child's mind has been furnished by the great interest manifested for some decades in evolu- tion. After Darwin, this interest centred in biol- ogy': later, it included the investigation of mental phenomena as well; and, as a result, comparative psychology has appeared. The minds of the animal, of the child, and of the adult now represent different stages in a single process, different levels of mental elaboration, corresponding more or less perfectly with stages of physical development. But the place of the child-mind in this series has only a general sig- nificance. It is the middle link in the chain. When we come to look more closely at the mat- ter, we realize that childhood is itself a transi- tion period, and that it includes a large number of developmental stages. This fact has led to the division of childhood into a number of periods or epochs, beginning at or before birth and continuing through youth. The division has sometimes rested upon a psychological basis, sometimes upon a physiological, an anatomical, or an anthropological basis. We may. e.g., mark off periods by changes in mental caiiaeity — devel- opment ()( the senses, speecli. emotional activity, power of attention, etc. — or by the functional activities of various bodily organs ; or by stages of physical growth ; or b}' the successive ap- pearance of racial char.acteristics. This last mode of division rests upon an alleged similarity between racial development and individual de- velopment. It implies a specific, evolutionary interpretation of the facts, and has led to the "recapitulation theory.' This theory posits a parall<dism, physical and mental, between the epoclis throiigli wliicii the race lias [lasscd — from primitive to civilized man. on the one liand, and the growth of the individual on the other. One pha.se of recapitulation lias been adopted by the ilerbartians in their theory of 'culture epochs.' They contend that the individual passes tlirough the same stages of culture that the race has traversed. The theory seems to hold only when it is taken broadly. The "young savage' in the cliild is strikingly apparent at times: and his passion for hunting, fishing, roving, and intoler- ance of restraint are strong reminders of lower grades of culture. But there are many unlike factors in the environment of the child and the savage. The race wrought its own culture; the chilli has its culture thrust upon it. It lives in a social and moral forcing-house, from which a primitive race is exempt, except in so far as it conies in contact with more civilized peoples. These ditt'erences, together with the physical immaturity of the child, can but cut across and modify 'recapitulation.' And yet this may be clearly traced in certain general tendencies of the child; e.g. in the use of gesture lan- guage, in word-inventions and onomato[)opia, in rhythmic movements, in the character of his drawings, and in his esthetic preferences. We should, liowever. find similar resemblances be- tween the child of civilization and the child of primitive culture. The two seem to ditVer chiefly in the shorter period of infancy and adolescence which is allotted to the primitive child. So that we are led to a fact which is perhaps more im- portant than the alleged recapitulation — th(^ fact that childhood differs comparatively little be- tween one level of culture and another. where;is the mental status of the adult varies materially. But not only does the evolutionary study of the child-mind hint at the parallelism of indi- vidual and racial development; it intimates that the child often 'harks back' to experiences of his animal progenitors. JIany of his emotions, as fear and anger, his instinctive and impulsive actions, his vegetarian propensities, habits of scratching, biting, clawing, teasing, his cruelty, many of his games and plays, have been instanced as showing atavistic tendencies. In this matter, again, the ria media is the only safe way. Many so-called atavisms are simply analogies, some of them poor analogies, whose real explanation is to be found within the experience of the indi- vidual himself. We grant that the experience of the liunian young has many points in common with the experience of certain of the lower ani- mals; but the question is whether the likeness is not usually coincidental. Take, e.g. the cruelty of the child. It is dvie largely to a failure to appreciate the significance of pain; while in the savage it is the natural result (wlierc it really exists) of a hard struggle for survival. Beside the evolutionary method, we find much work in child psychology prix"eeding from a gen- eral interest in childhood. This is a part of the child-study movement, which has acquired great momentum within the last few years. Child- study embraces many aspects of childhood — - psychological, anatomical, physiological, hygienic, pathological, .Tsthetic. mcu-al, sociological. Still another incentive, to child psychology is given by p<'(lagogj'. Many jiractical problems which con- front educators depend upon psychology for