Recapitulation is a theory of the evolutionary development of the embryo developed by Stanley Hall.
The development of child psychology at the beginning of the 20th century was directly related to the name of the scientist Stanley Hall. This is the time of formation and birth of such branches of science: child psychiatry, educational psychology, pediatrics, child anthropology, juvenile criminology and many others.
Pedology is a science based on the idea of pedocentrism. This means that the child is the center of research in many disciplines: psychology, biology, anthropology, etc. Of all these disciplines, the part of science that relates to children stands out. Nowadays, this science no longer exists, and the name is not used.
Stanley Hall and his first experimental laboratory
Hall himself studied under Wunt. After completing his internship, he founded a special scientific and technical laboratory to carry out his experiments. Investigating child development, he concluded that it is based on the bioenergetic law laid down by Haeckel. HoweverHaeckel argued that the embryo in its development goes through all the stages that its entire family had gone through before. Hall extended this law to man. He assumed that the genetic development of the child is a re-creation of the developmental stage of the species. Recapitulation is the theory of evolution in psychology.
The essence of development theory
The theory claims that all stages of development, as well as their content, depend on genetics, and therefore it is impossible to avoid or bypass at least one of these stages. The passage of these stages guarantees the normal functioning and development of the child's psyche, and fixation on any of them leads to serious deviations.
Based on the need to live through all the stages, Hall considered the mechanism that leads to a change from one stage to another. This is implemented in the game, which is a specific mechanism. So there were various games of catch-up, "Cossack robbers" and so on. The child should be free to express his playful impulses.
Hall Research
In his laboratory, Hall conducted research on young men and adolescents, developing for them many questionnaires and other kinds of questionnaires to study various aspects of human mental development.
Although Hall's ideas were revised, his pedology quickly gained popularity and spread throughout the world. Based on it, many researchers and psychologists have created new ideas.
