Arnold Gesell

Psychologist, Academic

1880 – 1961

50

Who was Arnold Gesell?

Arnold Lucius Gesell was a psychologist and pediatrician who helped develop the field of child development.

Gesell was born in Alma, Wisconsin, whose dysgenic qualities Gesell later analysed in The Village of a Thousand Souls. He was the eldest of five children and the son of a photographer and a teacher, individuals who were both interested in education. Watching his younger siblings learn and grow helped to establish in him an interest in children.

With plans to become a teacher, Gesell attended Stevens Point Normal School after he graduated from high school in 1896. Here, he took a course with the Clark University-educated Edgar James Swift, who piqued Gesell’s interest in psychology. He worked as a high school teacher briefly, but then went on to study at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. There he took history courses taught by Frederick Jackson Turner and psychology courses taught by Joseph Jastrow, who started the psychology laboratory at the University of Wisconsin. Gesell received a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from Wisconsin in 1903. He served as a teacher and high school principal before continuing his education at Clark University, an early leader in psychology.

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Born
Jun 21, 1880
Alma
Nationality
  • United States of America
Profession
Education
  • Clark University
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Yale University
Employment
  • Yale School of Medicine
  • Yale University
Died
May 29, 1961

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

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