CHILDHOOD

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Does childhood matter?

-- Liza (MSLIZA08@aol.com), April 28, 2002

Answers

Well, without it, there would be no adults... :-)

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), April 28, 2002.

I second Christopher's reply. Just to add a bit, the importance placed on the childhood of an individual is emphasized to varying degrees by various psychologists. To my knowledge, most if not all personality psychologists have something to say about childhood, even if some do not highlight it in their theories. One important element of childhood is that it's been found that children are quite suggestible, and therefore are likely to believe things they are told, without critical reflection. Given this, if a child is told one thing, regardless of the value judgment we place on what they are told (i.e., whether they are told something "good" or "bad), they may believe it. If the belief is sustained or not critically reviewed, then is stands to reason that it might last into adulthood. I don't have any references on hand, but for an overview of childhood and psychology, you might want to begin with a developmental psychology text.

-- Daniel J. Denis (dand@yorku.ca), May 01, 2002.

Hello, Liza....think of childhood as a formless heap of soft clay in the hands of a sculptor.

Experiences (the sculptor) slowly but inexorably transmute this clay into a well-defined shape that's molded to keep the child as safe as possible in its friendly-to-terrifying world.

This well-defined shape is the place from which most of us experience everything that occurs during the rest of our time on earth.

So....yes, childhood matters.

A lot!!

-- visualize me (visualizeme@webtv.net), May 03, 2002.


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