Deconstructing Developmental Psychology: Second Edition

What is childhood and why, and how, did psychology come to be the arbiter of 'correct' or 'normal' development? How do actual lived childhoods connect with theories about child development? In this completely revised and updated edition, "Deconstructing Developmental Psychology" interrogates the assumptions and practices surrounding the psychology of child development, providing a critical evaluation of the role and contribution of developmental psychology within social practice. In the decade since the first edition was published, there have been many major changes. The role accorded childcare experts and the power of the 'psy complex' have, if anything, intensified. This book addresses how shifts in advanced capitalism have produced new understandings of children, and a new (and more punitive) range of institutional responses to children. It engages with the paradoxes of childhood in an era when young adults are increasingly economically dependent on their families, and in a political context of heightened insecurity. The new edition includes an updated review of developments in psychological theory (in attachment, evolutionary psychology, theory of mind, and cultural-historical approaches), as well as updating and reflecting upon the changed focus on fathers and fathering.