Growing Critical: Alternatives to Developmental Psychology

Growing Criticalis an introduction to critical psychology, focusing on development. It takes a fresh look at infancy, childhood and adulthood and makes the startling claim that "development" does not exist. John Morss guides the reader from the early critical movements of the early 1970s which gave rise to the "social construction of development" through the wide range of more recent approaches. He looks in turn at Vygotsky's "social context of development," at Harre's "social construction," Marxist critique of developmental psychology, psychoanalytic interpretations of development and post-structuralist approaches following Foucault and Derrida. He surveys the range of alternative positions in the critical psychology of development and evaluates the achievements of Newman and Holzman, Broughton, Tolman, Walkerdine and others. Marxism, psychoanalysis and post-structuralism--as well as such movements as feminism--challenge our understandings of human development. InGrowing Critical,Morss examines the implications of these challenges.