Arnold Lucius Gesell (21 June 1880 – 29 May 1961) was an American psychologist,
pediatrician and professor at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
known for his research and contributions to the fields of child hygiene and
child development
Child development involves the Human development (biology), biological, developmental psychology, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the conclusion of adolescence. Childhood is divided into 3 stages o ...
.
[Harris, B. (2011). Arnold Gesell’s Progressive vision: Child hygiene, socialism and eugenics. History of Psychology, 14, 311-334.]
Early life
Gesell was born in
Alma, Wisconsin
Alma is a city in and the county seat of Buffalo County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 716 at the 2020 census.
The motto for the city of Alma is: "Step into Living History."
History
Alma was named in commemoration of the Battle ...
, and later wrote an article analyzing his experiences there entitled ''The Village of a Thousand Souls.''
The eldest of five children, Arnold and his siblings were born to photographer Gerhard Gesell and schoolteacher Christine Giesen.
His first experience in observing child development involved watching his younger siblings learn and grow until he graduated from
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
in 1896.
After high school, Gesell attended
the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, where a course taught by Edgar James Swift purportedly led Arnold to take an interest in psychology. Gesell worked as a high school teacher briefly before leaving to study at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
. Later, he studied history under
Professor Frederick Jackson Turner and psychology under
Joseph Jastrow
Joseph Jastrow (January 30, 1863 – January 8, 1944) was a Polish-born American psychologist, noted for inventions in experimental psychology, design of experiments, and psychophysics. He also worked on the phenomena of optical illusions, ...
, receiving a bachelor of philosophy degree from Wisconsin in 1903.
Career
Gesell served as a teacher and high school principal before seeking his psychological doctorate at
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...
, where the university's president,
G. Stanley Hall
Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1846 – April 24, 1924) was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on human life span development and evolutionary theory. Hall was the first president of the American Psy ...
, had founded a child study movement.
Arnold received his PhD from Clark in 1906.
Gessell worked at several educational facilities in New York City and Wisconsin before obtaining a professorship at the Los Angeles State Normal School, now known as the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...
. There he met fellow teacher Beatrice Chandler, who would become his wife. They later had a daughter and a son, Federal District Judge Gerhard Gesell.
Gesell also spent time at schools for the mentally disabled, including the
Vineland Training School
The Vineland Training School is a non-profit organization in Vineland, New Jersey with the mission of educating people with developmental disabilities so they can live independently. It has been a leader in research and testing.
The Training Sch ...
in New Jersey. Having developed an interest in the causes and treatment of childhood disabilities, Gesell began studying at the University of Wisconsin Medical School to better understand physiology.
He later served as an assistant professor at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
while continuing to study medicine.
He developed the
Clinic of Child Development there and received his MD in 1915. He was later given a full professorship at Yale.
Gesell also served as the school psychologist for the
Connecticut State Board of Education
The Connecticut State Board of Education is the governing body of the Connecticut State Department of Education, which oversees the public education in the U.S. state, state, distribute funds to the state's 166 school districts, and operates the Co ...
and helped develop classes to help children with disabilities succeed. This historic appointment made Gesell the first
school psychologist
School psychology is a field that applies principles from educational psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, community psychology, and behavior analysis to meet the learning and behavioral health needs of children and ado ...
in the United States. He wrote several books, including ''The Preschool Child from the Standpoint of Public Hygiene and Education'' in 1923, ''The Mental Growth of the Preschool Child'' in 1925 (which was also published as a film), and ''An Atlas of Infant Behavior'' (chronicling typical milestones for certain ages) in 1934. He coauthored with
Frances Ilg
Frances Lillian Ilg (1902– July 26, 1981) was an American pediatrician and professor at Yale University. She was an expert in infant and child development, as co-founder and director of the Gesell Institute of Child Development.
Early life a ...
two childrearing guides, ''Infant and Child in the Culture of Today'' in 1943 and ''The Child from Five to Ten'' in 1946.
Gesell made use of the latest technology in his research. He used the newest in video and photography advancements. He also made use of one-way mirrors when observing children, even inventing the
Gesell dome, a
one-way mirror
A one-way mirror, also called two-way mirror (or one-way glass, half-silvered mirror, and semi-transparent mirror), is a reciprocal mirror that appears reflective on one side and transparent at the other. The perception of one-way transmission i ...
shaped like a dome under which children could be observed without being disturbed. In his research, he studied many children, including
Kamala
Kamala refers to:
People
* Kamala (name), given name and surname, includes list of people and characters with the name
** Kamala Harris, the 49th and current Vice President of the United States
* Kamala (wrestler) (1950–2020), American profess ...
, the wolf girl. He also did research on young animals, including monkeys.
As a psychologist, Gesell wrote and spoke about the importance of both
nature and nurture in child development. He cautioned others not to be quick to attribute mental disabilities to specific causes. He believed that many aspects of human behavior, such as
handedness and
temperament
In psychology, temperament broadly refers to consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes.
Some researchers point to association of temperam ...
, were
heritable
Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic informa ...
. He explained that children adapted to their parents as well as to one another. He advocated for a nationwide
nursery school
A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary schoo ...
system in the United States.
Gesell's popular books spread his ideas beyond academia. His core message, urging parents to "nourish the child's trustfulness in life", resonated with child advocates long before
Benjamin Spock
Benjamin McLane Spock (May 2, 1903 – March 15, 1998) was an American pediatrician and left-wing political activist whose book '' Baby and Child Care'' (1946) is one of the best-selling books of the twentieth century, selling 500,000 copies ...
became America's most prominent parental advisor.
In ''The Child from Five to Ten'', Gesell wrote, "It is no longer trite to say that children are the one remaining hope of mankind... If we could but capture their transparent honesty and sincerities! They still have much to teach us, if we observe closely enough."
Maturational Theory and Developmental Schedules
Gesell's ideas came to be known as
Gesell's Maturational Theory of child development.
Based on his theory, he published a series of summaries of child development sequences, called the
Gesell Developmental Schedules
The Gesell Developmental Schedules are a set of developmental metrics which outline the ages & stages of development in young children developed by Dr. Arnold Gesell and colleagues.Kaplan, R. M., & Sacuzzo, D. P.(2010). Psychological Testing: ...
.
The
Gesell Institute
The Gesell Institute of Child Development is a 501c(3)non-profit organization located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. It promotes to and educates child care professionals on the principles of child development originally laid down by t ...
of Human Development, named after him, was started by his colleagues from the
Clinic of Child Development, Frances Ilg and
Louise Bates Ames
Louise Bates Ames (October 29, 1908 – October 31, 1996) was an American psychologist specializing in child development. Ames was known as a pioneer of child development studies, introducing the theory of child development stages to popular disc ...
in 1950, after Gesell retired from the university in 1948.
[ ] In 2012, the institute was renamed the Gesell Institute of Child Development.
Personal
In 1911, Gesell married Beatrice Chandler who was a teacher he had met while working at Los Angeles State Normal School. The couple had a daughter and a son.
Gesell died at his home in New Haven in 1961.
Selected publications
* Gesell, Arnold. "The Village of a Thousand Souls." American Magazine, Oct. 1913, pp. 11–16.
* Gesell, A., & Ilg, F. L. (1949). Child development, an introduction to the study of human growth. New York: Harper.
* Gesell, A., Ilg, F. L., & Ames, L. B. (1974). Infant and child in the culture of today: the guidance of development in home and nursery school (Rev. ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
* Gesell, A., Thompson, H., & Amatruda, C. S. (1938). The psychology of early growth, including Norms of infant behavior and a method of genetic analysis. New York: The Macmillan Company.
* "Arnold Lucius Gesell.", in Boring, E.G. (1952), ''History of Psychology in Autobiography'' 4: 123–42. Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.
References
Notes
General references
* Harris, Ben "Arnold Lucius Gesell".
American National Biography
The ''American National Biography'' (ANB) is a 24-volume biographical encyclopedia set that contains about 17,400 entries and 20 million words, first published in 1999 by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Le ...
. Retrieved on 2006-11-16
* Harris, Ben (2011). Arnold Gesell's Progressive vision: Child hygiene, socialism and eugenics. History of Psychology, 14, 311-334.
* Kessen, William. (1965). "Growth and Personality" The Child: 208–228.
* Miles, Walter R. (1964). "Arnold Lucius Gesell". Biographical Memoirs: National Academy of Sciences 37: 55–96. New York: Columbia University Press.
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External links
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* Gesell'
archives at the Library of CongressGesell Program in Early Childhood
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gesell, Arnold
1880 births
1961 deaths
20th-century American psychologists
People from Alma, Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Clark University alumni
Yale University faculty
Yale Sterling Professors
Developmental psychologists
Writers from Wisconsin
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences