Chapter Summary<\/summary>\nThis chapter explores the material foundations of developmental psychology, focusing on how tools, technologies, and objects have shaped our understanding of the child. Beginning with a vivid historical case, namely the use of Arnold Gesell\u2019s photographic dome at Yale, it examines how supposedly neutral scientific environments actively produce psychological knowledge. By following the history of cots, domes, toys, observation rooms, standardised tests, and other arte-facts, the chapter shows that developmental psychology is not only theoretical but fundamentally material. Figures such as Margaret Lowenfeld, John Bowlby, and Kenneth and Mamie Clark are discussed in terms of the physical cultures they created around children. The chapter introduces the critical thinking tool of material culture, highlighting how instruments of observation shape what development means. Drawing on epistemological, ontological, and power-based critiques, the chapter considers how norms of childhood have been constructed through selective sampling, biopolitical agendas, and assumptions about race, gender, and class. Ultimately, the chapter encourages students to see developmental psychology not as a passive window onto childhood but as an active participant in constructing what childhood is and ought to be.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Chapter 19 – Quiz<\/h2>\n\n\n\n