Arnold Gesell was an American psychologist, philosopher and pediatrician who studied child development. His work as a teacher and writer between the 1920s and 1950s quickly positioned him as one of the great experts on parenting and child rearing in North America.

However, it has been more recognized because it developed a very important research method for modern psychology: the Gesell chamber. In this article we review Arnold Gesell’s biography, as well as some of the repercussions that his work has had in the studies on children’s development and how he invented the observation camera that bears his name.

Biography of Arnold Gesell: physician, philosopher and educator

Arnold Gesell (1880-1961) was born in Wisconsin, USA. He was the eldest of five siblings, the children of a photographer and a teacher, both of whom had a strong interest in early childhood education. With the intention of becoming also a teacher, Gesell was formed from very young with the educator Edgar James Swift , who quickly detected Gesell’s interest in child psychology and education.

Later he began to specialize in other disciplines. For example, she earned a degree in philosophy in her hometown in 1903, while training in the psychology lab at the University of Wisconsin as well as in history and education.

He obtained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1906 and finally studied medicine also at the University of Wisconsin, completing his doctorate in 1915. He soon became an assistant professor at Yale University, where he founded a Child Development Clinic and worked as a school psychologist in Connecticut.

In this last city, Arnold Gesell started studying how the development of children with disabilities was, and then he came to the conclusion that to understand that, first it was necessary to understand how the development of children without disabilities had been. This was what finally led him to develop some principles of children’s development.

Some contributions by Arnold Gesell

Gesell’s influence comes from an idea that became popular quickly and that remains in the social imaginary until our days: the generalized belief that there is a kind of “schedule” in children’s development. That is, a series of stages related to age and characterized by typical behaviours .

Even though some previous authors, such as Sigmund Freud, had already proposed theories about child development and its stages, it was Arnold Gesell’s contributions that positioned themselves as a reference point on the subject, at least during his time.

His work revolves around the proposal that the process of maturation can be helped or accompanied by an environment designed in a reflexive way , so he quickly moved to education.

During his researches, Gesell focused on different moments of the children’s development, as well as on different characteristics. Some of the most important areas were motor development, adaptive behavior and psychosocial behavior.

Theoretical influences

Gesell believed that these stages through which childhood passes, reproduce the stages through which all the development and evolution of the human species has passed. That means that his theory about child development is strongly influenced by evolutionary theories which were very popular in the United States and Europe at that time.

Likewise, his theory is influenced by the studies that took place at the beginning of the 20th century when medicine was beginning to set itself the goal of knowing children better, in addition to the fact that at the same time there was a strong debate about innate-learning binarism.

Gesell believed that much of a child’s personality and behavior is inherited, but that one should not rush to make a diagnosis, especially in the case of those with a disability.

It coincided that at this moment Gesell came to study medicine at Yale University, where he was assigned a room inside a pediatric clinic. He was in charge of treating different childhood problems . Thanks to his previous training as an educator and psychologist, he placed emphasis on the bond with the parents of the children he was treating, which was also considered to be something new, since this method resembled education a little more than medicine.

In addition, took distance from the psychometric methods that were very popular at that time and concentrated on evaluating intelligence. Gesell preferred more qualitative methods, for example based on the clinical observation of each child and each area.

Gesell’s chamber

Taking his photographer father as an influence, Gesell used many technological resources in the development of his theories. For example, he frequently used photographic and video cameras as well as one-way mirrors to be able to observe in detail how children develop.

In fact, this one-way mirror quickly became an observation camera , which consists of separating two rooms by a one-way viewing mirror. The people in one room are reflected in that mirror, while the people in the other room continue not only not to be reflected, but can see what is happening next to them.

The intention of this observation chamber is that researchers can observe what is happening in the next room , without the other person feeling inhibited, that is, it allows them to act in a more spontaneous and natural way. This camera is used to this day as a very important method of investigation and study, and is known as the Gesell camera.

Main works

Some of his major works are The Mental Growth of the Preschool Child from 1925, and The Child From Five to Ten , from 1977.

In co-authorship with other authors, Gesell develops in both books the idea of the stages through which childhood passes . Likewise, they are considered two of the classic works of developmental psychology.

Bibliographic references:

  • Weizmann, F. (2012). Arnold Gesell: The Maturationist. In Pickren, W., Dewsbury, D. and Wertheimer, M. (Eds.). Portraits of Pioneers in Developmental Psychology. Psychology Press: New York.