Recapitulation is a theory of evolutionary development of the embryo developed by Stanley Hall.
The development of child psychology at the beginning of the 20th century was directly related to the name of the scientist Stanley Hall. This is the time of the formation and birth of such branches of science: child psychiatry, pedagogical psychology, pediatrics, children's anthropology, juvenile criminology and many others.
Pedology is a science that is based on the idea of pedocentrism. This means that the child is the center of research in many disciplines: psychology, biology, anthropology, etc. Of all these disciplines, the part of science that relates to children is distinguished. In our time, this science no longer exists, and the name is not used.
Stanley Hall and his first experimental laboratory
Hall himself studied with Wunt. After completing an internship, he founded a special scientific and technical laboratory to conduct his experiments. Studying children's development, he concluded that it is based on the bioenergy law laid down by Haeckel. However, Haeckel argued that the embryo in its development goes through all the stages that its entire genus had gone through before. Hall extended the effect of this law to man. He suggested that the genetic development of the child is a recreation of the stage of development of the species. Recapitulation is a theory of evolution in psychology .
The essence of development theory
The theory claims that all stages of development, as well as their content, depend on genetics, and therefore it is impossible to evade or to pass at least one of these stages. The passage of these stages guarantees the normal functioning and development of the psyche of the child, and fixing on any of them leads to serious deviations.
Based on the need for all stages to live, Hall considered a mechanism that leads to the change of one stage to another. This is implemented in the game, which is a specific mechanism. So there were various catch-up games, "Cossack robbers" and so on. The child should be free in the manifestation of his game impulses.
Hall Research
In his laboratory, Hall conducted research on young men and adolescents, developing many questionnaires and other types of questionnaires for them to study various aspects of human mental development.
Although Hall's ideas were revised, his pedology quickly gained popularity and spread throughout the world. Based on it, many researchers and psychologists have created new ideas.