ABSTRACT
This book was edited by myself, Eckhard Hess, and Harriet Rheingold and was published by Wiley in 1967. It was the product of two research conferences, in 1963 and 1965, that were organized by the United States Social Science Research Council on the topic of early development. The invited participants represented differing theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of the development of the young of different species. The first version of their reports was presented at the initial meeting, and their final papers were discussed at the second one. These conferences marked the first instance in which a broad spectrum of thought was brought to bear on the study of the basic problem of early development. The content of the chapters covered not only a range of different species but also a range of behavior processes from the very simple to the very complex. The viewpoints of the participants varied from those in which genetic and innate organizations of perception and behavior were deemed to be most critical to those in which conditioning and learning were thought to be sufficient for understanding behavioral development. The research reported in these chapters and the diverse points of view of the authors have significantly influenced the concepts and designs of subsequent generations of researchers as well as the public welfare, health, and educational policies of many nations.
