RAISING YOUR CHILDREN: What Behavioral Scientists Have Discovered

A competent, readable and discriminating presentation of the more important theories and discoveries in contemporary behavioral science having to do with the rearing of children. Following an absorbing introduction which traces major and dominant trends in American child upbringing--from the Puritan rod through the influences of Rousseau's pristine garden to the twentieth century's battery of Freud, Dewey and John Watson (""Never hug or kiss (children) . . . . Shake hands with them in the morning"")--the author sets forth findings and on-going work in the areas of heredity vs. environment; the ego, id and super ego; the nature and effect of permissiveness, rejection and possessiveness; and age group profiles. A teen age study which compares attitudes of teenagers in 1935 and 1959 provides a fascinating base for speculation (the author has carefully conditioned the reader not to accept the researchers' conclusions as gospel) that quite possibly times are achangin' more than a parent might guess; and this up-to-the-minute roundup should prove to be most interesting to all involved professionally with children--along with the well read parent. Popular pipeline to lab luminaries working with, and for, the young.