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I.An Ethological Approach to Research in Child Development. John Bowlby.
II.Contributions of Associative Learning Theories to an Understanding of Child Development. C. B. Hindley.
III.The Contributions of Psychoanalysis to the Understanding of Child Development. Cecily de Monchaux.
IV.The System Makers: Piaget and Freud. James Anthony.
Bowlby concerns himself with some of the contributions of current ethological research which can be applied to the understanding of child development. He believes that many phases of work with lower species are 'analogous and perhaps even homologous with much of what concerns us clinically'. He reviews the findings of a number of prominent ethologists and tries to correlate their views with those of psychoanalysts working with the problems of child development. He particularly emphasizes the significance of 'species-specific' patterns of behavior, and the concept of critical phases in the development of such patterns. An understanding of the critical phases in the development of modes of regulating conflicts would 'provide us with an understanding of the origin of the neurosis'.
Hindley briefly summarizes some of the ideas and interests of learning theorists that pertain to the problems of child development. He points out that this is a relatively new field of study for the learning theorists and no 'complete system for dealing with the many different facets' has been put forward. He reviews some aspects of learning theory in regard to sensory motor levels, perception, motivation, and aggression. Hebb's neurophysiological theory is discussed in some detail. Hindley feels that the concept and approaches of learning theory are not inconsistent with either the ideas of Piaget or of psychoanalysis, and that 'many of