The growth of the mind : an introduction to child-psychology / by Kurt Koffka ; translated by Robert Morris Ogden.

  • Kurt Koffka
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The growth of the mind : an introduction to child-psychology / by Kurt Koffka ; translated by Robert Morris Ogden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    77/474 (page 51)
    THE RHYTHM OF DEVELOPMENT as many facts as possible which may prove helpful in tracing the correspondence between individual and racial development. This means that one should constantly endeavour to support, to control, and to supplement the results of one branch of developmental investigation with results obtained in another branch ; as, for in¬ stance, by comparing child-psychology with folk- psychology ; but one should never allow oneself to be led into the dogmatic construction of uniformities and dependencies. When material enough is at hand, one can then take up the problems of dependency which naturally arise,without being in any wise hindered by theoretical presuppositions. § 4—The Tempo and Rhythm of Development Development, or the succession of its different stages, is conditioned primarily, though not altogether (see § 5), by an inherited disposition. This statement holds true both for the organism as a whole and also for its dynamics and rhythm ; because these, too, are con¬ ditioned by inherited disposition. What interests us here is the fact that disposition, and therefore develop¬ ment, may greatly vary in these respects. In point of fact, one is able to infer dispositional differences only on the ground that different individuals when placed in the same situation and amid the same surroundings exhibit quite different forms of development. Thus, for some individuals the rate of development is very rapid, while for others it is very slow ; furthermore, some individuals show a greater regularity of develop¬ ment than do others. A slow rate of progress at the beginning may be followed by a period of very rapid development, and, conversely, an accelerated develop¬ ment may suddenly be arrested, as illustrated by infant- prodigies who fail to live up to their early promise. In general, these differences may be attributed to inherited disposition, though an environment which constantly