Curtis, Scott (Author)
Science in Context
Volume: 24
Pages: 417--442
Publication date: 2011
Language: English
Edition Details: Part of a special issue: “Cinematography, Seriality, and the Sciences”
From 1924 to 1948, developmental psychologist Arnold Gesell regularly used photographic and motion picture technologies to collect data on infant behavior. The film camera, he said, records behavior in such coherent, authentic and measurable detail that . . . the reaction patterns of infant and child become almost as tangible as tissue. This essay places his faith in the fidelity and tangibility of film, as well as his use of film as evidence, in the context of developmental psychology's professed need for legitimately scientific observational techniques. It also examines his use of these same films as educational material to promote his brand of scientific child rearing. But his analytic techniques -- his methods of extracting data from the film frames -- are the key to understanding the complex relationship between his theories of development and his chosen research technology.
...MoreArticle Wellmann, Janina (2011) Introduction. Science in Context (p. 311).
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