Twenty Studies That Revolutionized Child Psychology

For undergraduate courses in Child Development/Psychology, Life Span Development, Child and Family Studies, and Human Growth and Development

Twenty Studies That Revolutionized Child Psychology gives students a systematic look at the process of child psychology research by examining the twenty most revolutionary scientific investigations in the field over the course of the last fifty years. For the second edition, author and child psychologist Wallace Dixon polled an expanded number of experts in the field to determine the most important studies to be included. The result is an updated collection of revolutionary studies that helps students to better understand the discipline of child psychology.

1. Introduction

PART I: FOUR STUDIES THAT REVOLUTIONIZED COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
2. From Mollusks to Rugrats: Biological Principles and Psychological Ideas.
3. Piaget, J. (1962).  Play, dreams and imitation in childhood.  New York: Norton.
4. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978).  Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
5. Baillargeon, R., Spelke, E.S., & Wasserman, S. (1985).  Object permanence in five-month-old infants.  Cognition, 20, 191-208.    
6. Thelen, E., & Ulrich, B.D. (1991).  Hidden skills: A dynamic systems analysis of treadmill stepping during the first year.  Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 56, (1, Serial No. 223).

PART II: FIVE STUDIES THAT REVOLUTIONIZED PERCEPTUAL AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
7. Gibson, E.J., & Walk, R.D. (1960).  The “visual cliff.”  Scientific American, 202, 64-71.
8. Fantz, R.L. (1961).  The origin of form perception.  Scientific American, 204, 66-73.
9. Hubel, D.H., & Wiesel, T.N. (1962).  Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat’s visual cortex. The Journal of Physiology, 160, 106-154.
10. Werker, J.F., & Tees, R.C. (1984).  Cross-language speech perception: Evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life.  Infant Behavior and Development, 7, 49-63.
11. Saffran, J.R., Aslin, R.N., & Newport, E.L. (1996).  Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants.  Science, 274, 1926-1928.

PART III: FOUR STUDIES THAT REVOLUTIONIZED SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
12. Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 575-582.
13. Meltzoff, A.N., & Moore, M.K. (1977).  Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates.  Science, 198, 75-79.
14. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977).  Toward an experimental ecology of human development.  American Psychologist , 32, 513-531.
15. Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Rodriguez, M.I. (1989).  Delay of gratification in children. Science, 244, 933-938.

PART IV: SEVEN STUDIES THAT REVOLUTIONIZED PARENTING AND CLINICAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY
16. Harlow, H.F., & Harlow, M.K. (1965).  The affectional systems.  In A. Schrier, H.F. Harlow, & F. Stollnitz (Eds.), Behavior of nonhuman primates:  Modern research trends.  New York:  Academic Press.
17. Bowlby, J. (1969).  Attachment and loss, Vol. 1: Attachment. New York: Basic Books.
18. Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1979). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
19. Thomas, A., Chess, S., & Birch, H.G. (1968). Temperament and behavior disorders in childhood.  New York: New York University Press.
20. Baumrind, D. (1971).  Current patterns of parental authority.  Developmental Psychology Monographs, 4 (1, part 2).
21. DeCasper, A.J., & Fifer, W.P. (1980).  Of human bonding:  Newborns prefer their mothers’ voices.  Science, 208, 1174-1176.
22. Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A.M., & Frith, U. (1985).  Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”?  Cognition, 21, 37-46.