CHILD PSYCHOLOGY
A systematic knowledge of the powers and limitations of the human mind
and soul before maturity and the characteristic changes which they
undergo at puberty will throw a flood of light on the boy-problem.
Juvenile psychology may be divided into child psychology, covering
the period from birth to puberty, and adolescent psychology, covering
the period from puberty to maturity. Boyhood is the interval between
birth and physical maturity, the latter being reached at the age of
twenty-four or twenty-five, when the bones, muscles, and organs of
the body have attained their complete development. Legal maturity,
or majority, comes at the end of the twenty-first year, when the
disabilities of infancy are removed and the boy is presumed by law to
have acquired sufficient intelligence, judgment, and moral discernment
to take his place in the community as a citizen, and is then vested
with all the rights, duties, and obligations of an adult, even though
mental maturity (reckoned at the time the brain cells cease to grow
and judgment and reason have fully ripened) is deferred until he is
approximately fifty years of age. We may roughly divide the boy’s life
into four periods of psychic unfolding in accordance with the table on
page 32.
+----------------+-------------+-------------------------------------+
| PERIOD | AGE | CHARACTERISTICS |
+----------------+-------------+-------------------------------------+
| | | Imaginative faculty is |
| IMAGINATIVE | Birth to 8 | dominant; acquisition of |
| | Infancy | locomotion, speech and elementary |
| | | knowledge; birth |
| | | of moral concepts. |
+----------------+-------------+-------------------------------------+
| | | Individualism; selfish |
|INDIVIDUALISTIC | 8 to 12 | propensities; want of regard |
| | Early | for rights of others; imitative |
| | Boyhood | faculty is ascendant. |
+----------------+-------------+-------------------------------------+
| | | Hero-worship; gang affiliations; |
| HEROIC | 12 to 16 | puberty and early |
| | Early | adolescence; fundamental |
| | Adolescence | organic changes; sex-consciousness; |
| | | age of experimentation; |
| | | character-building period; psychic |
| | | disturbances; exceptional |
| | | plasticity of mind; high |
| | | degree of emotionalism; |
| | | susceptibility to religious |
| | | influences; development of |
| | | will-power. |
+----------------+-------------+-------------------------------------+
| | | Thoughtful mental |
| REFLECTIVE | 16 to 24 | attitude; habit of introspection; |
| | Later | evolution of |
| | Adolescence | sociological consciousness; |
| | | development of altruism; |
| | | growth of ethical concepts; |
| | | perfection of will-power. |
+----------------+-------------+-------------------------------------+
During the imaginative period covering infancy, from birth to eight
years, the child lives in a land of air castles, daydreams and mental
inventions, interspersed with periodic pangs of hunger which assail him
at intervals of great frequency. His world is peopled with fairies,
gnomes, nymphs, dryads, goblins, and hobgoblins. Elfin images are his
daily playmates. Imagination runs riot and dominates his viewpoint.
It is the period in which make-believe is as real as reality, and
this furnishes the explanation of many of the so-called falsehoods of
this age. But the development of the imagination should be guarded,
not suppressed. Through imagination we visualize the future and
effect world progress. All the great inventions which have advanced
civilization, the political reforms which have contributed to our
liberties and happiness, and the monumental works of literature, music,
art, and science, would have been impossible without the exercise of
the imaginative faculty.
Imagination is not only of great value in educating the intellect and
morals, but it is a desirable mental attribute which promotes sympathy,
discloses latent possibilities of things and situations, and broadens
one’s appreciation of life. It is needed by the laborer, ditch-digger
and sewer-cleaner as well as by the musician, artist, and author.
In this period the child learns more than in all his subsequent life.
He learns to talk, to walk, to feed himself and to play; he learns
the rudiments of written and printed language, and the names and uses
of the various objects he sees about him; he comprehends form, color,
perspective, and harmony; his imagination, so useful in later life,
blossoms forth; his moral sense buds and the capacity to distinguish
between right and wrong unfolds; the intense desire to learn and to
know is born--evidenced by his rapid-fire and continuous questions;
he is possessed by a voracious appetite for knowledge which must be
fed by a harvest of information; and the habit of obedience and the
recognition of parental authority become fixed. His horizon is bounded
by physical growth and the acquisition of knowledge. All subsequent
knowledge is either a variant of or a supplement to the basic
knowledge acquired during infancy.
The ascendant trait of the imaginative period is the faculty of
make-believe. It is the ability of the mind to create mental images
of objects previously perceived by the senses. It involves the power
to reconstruct and recombine materials, already known, into others
of like symbolic purport. It is exhibited when Johnny mounts a
broomstick, shouting, “Get up, horsie!” and “Whoa!” The imagination
builds up a mental image of a real horse, which he has seen, out of the
stick-and-string substitute. Through fancy, he endows the counterfeit
with all the attributes of the original and for the time being the
broomstick is a real, living, bucking horse. Such make-believe is an
important factor in the development and coördination of ideas and the
acquisition of knowledge. And so in the innumerable instances of
make-believe plays, whether he pretends in fancy to be papa, a ravenous
bear, a soldier, a policeman, or what not, he temporarily lives
the part he is playing and merges his personality into the assumed
character with an abandon which should excite the envy of an actor.
Witness also the imagination displayed by Mary when she builds a house
with a line of chairs, and peoples it with imaginary friends with whom
she carries on extended conversations, and takes the several parts
in the dialogue when the absence of playmates renders such expedient
necessary. Impersonation is grounded in imagination. Every little
girl impersonates her mother, with a doll as her make-believe self,
and spends many hours in pretending to care for its physical needs,
teaching it mentally, and even correcting its morals with some form of
punishment with which she herself is acquainted, whether corporal or
otherwise.
The stolid, dull child exhibits less of fancy and imagination than
his keen bright companion and therefore is less frequently engaged
in the numberless activities prompted by imagination, which require
supervision. His very stolidity keeps him out of many acts termed
“mischief” and therefore he is more easily “managed” in the sense
that he does not require such continuous oversight and direction. The
stolid one must be set going by being told how, what, and when to play,
while the imaginative one, without aid, conjures up many fanciful
dramas in which he plays the leading rôle and thus occupies the years
of infancy. These figments of the brain give rise to stories and
fanciful tales which are called “lies” by adults who fail to understand
their psychology. These are of sufficient importance to warrant their
discussion in a separate chapter of this volume.
It is during this period that the mother, with her Heaven-sent gift of
love, sympathy, tenderness, and insight into the soul of childhood, is
the effective teacher. Coming home one evening, I found a neighbor’s
son of six years sitting on his front steps awaiting his mother’s
return. He was sobbing to himself. I approached him and inquired,
“Well, Robbie! What’s the matter?”
He replied, through a mist of tears, “I fell down and bumped my head.”
“Does it hurt you?” I continued, in my helpless way, unable to fathom
the soul-depths of his disaster. “No,” was the response, “it don’t
hurt, but I want muvver so I can cry in her arms, an’ it will be well.”
He needed first aid to his feelings--not to his body--and only mother
with her infinite love, sympathy, and understanding could apply it.
With a deep consciousness of the limitations of his sex, the author
withdrew to await the balm of mother-love--that unfailing remedy for
the physical and mental hurts of childhood.
Blest hour of childhood! then, and then alone,
Dance we the revels close round pleasure’s throne,
Quaff the bright nectar from her fountain-springs,
And laugh beneath the rainbow of her wings.
Oh! time of promise, hope and innocence,
Of trust, and love, and happy ignorance!
Whose every dream is heaven, in whose fair joy,
Experience has thrown no black alloy.
--THOUGHTS OF A RECLUSE.
At the age of eight or nine, when the child emerges from infancy into
early boyhood, he begins gradually and imperfectly to leave behind the
characteristics of childhood and, with the development of his mental
and physical processes, he acquires the distinguishing traits of the
individualistic period.
It should be borne in mind that the characteristic changes from one
period to another are not abrupt transitions, but easy gradations; a
gradual dropping of the distinctive features of the period left behind
for the essentials of the period just attained. The progression is by
easy, continuous stages, effected unconsciously and unobtrusively.
This growth may be compared to the four periods of the development
of a plant; first, the bursting of the seed into life and the tender
stalk forcing its way upward into the light--the infantile period;
then the formation of branches and leaves and the growth of stalk--the
early boyhood period; then the putting forth of the bud which is the
precursor of the flower, and the formation and development of petals,
stamen, pistils, and pollen--the adolescent period; and finally the
blossoming forth of the full-blown flower, the fertilization of the
pistil by the pollen of the anther, the whole marvelous process of
reproduction culminating in the formation of the embryonic plant
contained in the seed--the period of maturity. All of these stages are
characterized by an evolution which is as gradual as it is silent.
In like manner it should be understood that the ages delimiting the
four periods of boyhood are somewhat arbitrary and are subject to
the controlling factors of race, climate, health, and individual
temperament. The Latin races mature earlier than the Anglo-Saxon;
the boy in the tropics reaches puberty more quickly than one in a
colder zone; certain abnormalities of physical condition, as well as
environment and heredity, conduce to early maturity; and temperamental
characteristics contribute, in some degree, to a difference in the time
required to traverse the various periods of boyhood. I have known
boys of ten who were still infants, and I have in mind a boy friend
of sixteen years, with the normal mental development of one of that
age, in whom adolescence has not begun. Physically and psychologically
he is eleven years old, although chronologically he is sixteen. He
is, therefore, in the individualistic period of his existence and,
in a large degree, he should be judged, governed, and trained by the
rules applicable to that period. In so far as his moral concepts are
influenced by mentality, his responsibility for deflection is that of
one of his chronological age; but in that class of cases in which his
moral viewpoint is controlled by his undeveloped physical or psychic
state, his responsibility belongs to the individualistic period to
which these qualities are attributable.
The individualistic period between eight and twelve is the era in which
the boy regards himself as an individual not correlated to other
individuals of society. He is essentially selfish, and individualism is
his dominant characteristic. He has an excessive and exclusive regard
for his personal interests. The great world of men forming society
is beyond his perceptions. His thoughts chiefly concern himself and
seldom embrace others, except when they cause him pleasure, annoyance,
or pain. He recognizes them only as they contribute to his emotions.
This tendency manifests itself in the selfishness exhibited in play
and his unwillingness to perform the trifling services required of
him by his elders, if they in any way interfere with his present
enjoyment. Sociological consciousness, with its recognition of the
duties and obligations of the individual toward the mass of individuals
termed society, is still dormant. Its first awakening is seen in his
recognition of duty toward his family, and later toward his playmates
and friends, and last of all toward society--which is reached in the
reflective period. His mental horizon is bounded entirely by his own
activities and interests in which he is the central figure.
Carelessness, forgetfulness, and thoughtlessness of others are
incidents common to childhood which gradually wane and disappear at
the age when he enters the reflective period. As he lives in the
immediate present, he does not plan for the future--not even for the
morrow. Johnny comes home to supper from the playground, whirling
through the house with cyclonic energy and leaving a trail of gloves,
hat, overcoat, and superfluous garments in his wake, intent on the
only thing which is of absorbing interest to him at that moment--his
immediate presence at table to alleviate the excruciating pangs of
hunger which are gnawing at his vitals. Everything else is forgotten
in his efforts to satisfy the desires of the present. The next
morning, when preparations for school are begun, all remembrance of
the places where his wearing apparel was deposited is forgotten. Then
ensues the daily hunt for the missing garments, interspersed with
vociferous requests to all members of the household for assistance. The
interrogatory, “Where’s my hat?” is as common as oatmeal for breakfast.
Order and system have little place in a routine which is regulated by
present necessity.
A strong sense of proprietorship in personal possessions is now
manifest, and is closely allied to the acquisitive faculty. About the
ninth year he begins to make collections of various sorts of junk.
This is the beginning of the collection craze which lasts throughout
the individualistic period. Its initial manifestation is usually
the collection of foreign and domestic postage stamps, which lasts
from three to five years and furnishes one of the best methods for
elementary scientific training. The term science implies knowledge
systematized and reduced to an orderly and logical arrangement, with
classification as its basis. Such collections teach him to group
and classify their component parts according to some definite plan.
The intellectual training afforded by the grouping and classifying
necessary to preserve his collection possesses educational value of the
highest quality. Geography now has a new and personal meaning as “the
places where his stamps came from.” Other phases of this tendency may
be seen in collections of marbles, agates, tops, buttons, bird eggs,
leaves, minerals, monograms, crest impressions, cigarette pictures, and
cigar bands.
One boy proved his industry and trend toward personal acquisition by
collecting and classifying several hundred tin cans which were formerly
receptacles for fruit, beans, and meats, and the odors emanating from
the mass in no wise diminished his pride in the collection, which he
regarded in the same light as the connoisseur views his art treasures.
A wise provision of nature has made the acquisition of knowledge
pleasant and agreeable. It prompts the boy to fire continuous
volleys of questions and has caused him to be described as the
human interrogation mark. He looks on every adult as a wellspring
of knowledge whose stream of information can be started flowing by
tapping it with a question. The knowledge received and digested from
the answers to his questions supplies him with food by which he grows
intellectually. This inquisitiveness exhibits itself, before puberty,
in frank, naïve questions--even of the most personal nature. On one
occasion the author appeared in evening dress at a meeting of his
troop of Boy Scouts preparatory to a later attendance upon a social
function. He was immediately surrounded by that part of the troop
of preadolescent age who subjected his wearing apparel to minute
examination, during which they felt the cloth, inquired its cost, and
commented freely, frankly, and unreservedly on matters pertaining to
material, cut, style, price, and workmanship, with never a thought of
giving offense. While one who is the object of such attention would
ordinarily feel a degree of embarrassment at such familiarity, the
author recognized it as a manifestation of the curiosity inherent in
the preadolescent age, as well as evidence of a complete confidence and
_rapport_ which could be possible only toward one with whom they were
on terms of sympathetic and understandable companionship.
The sages say, Dame Truth delights to dwell,
Strange mansion! in the bottom of a well.
Questions are, then, the windlass and the rope
That pull the grave old gentlewoman up.
--Dr. Walcot’s PETER PINDAR.
During this age the imitative faculty is born, reaches its development,
and is carried over into the heroic period. He follows companions in
the kind of games and the seasons when they are played. If a playmate
is the possessor of a sled, a bicycle, or a pair of skates, he must
needs have their duplicates. He begins to follow closely the opinions,
pastimes, games, and even the style of dress affected by others of his
own class. If it is the fashion of his set, he will, with a persistency
worthy of a better cause, wear the brim of his hat turned down and
decorated with a multicolored hat band. He revels in a riot of color
because æsthetics is an unexplored and unsuspected world. His proximity
to the savage state is reflected in his love of the garish colors which
are affected by savage peoples.
His faculty for imitation renders him highly susceptible to the
influences of his environment. He imitates what he sees and hears.
Therefore the influence of companions for good or evil, as well as
the persuasive control of his parents by example, is potent. To a
somewhat lesser degree is he affected by the class of literature which
he reads. In the absence of stories suited to his psychological needs,
he acquires a taste for the dime novel, nickel library, and other
blood-and-thunder stories, the reading of which, if continued through
the heroic period, frequently results in truancy and leaving home to
“see the world.”
Concurrent with all the psychic development of this period he shows
himself to be a human dynamo of physical energy which manifests
itself in ceaseless action. This period of motor activity should find
its outlet, as well as its control, in play, athletics, and manual
training. He is a bundle of twist, squirm, and wiggle which only time
can convert into useful and productive activity.