Deconstructing Developmental Psychology 20 years on: Reflections, implications and empirical work

Abstract

First paragraph: Erica Burman’s bookDeconstructing Developmental Psychology(DDP), which appeared in first edition in 1994 and in second edition in 2008, critically appraises mainstream approaches to child development, using feminist and post-structuralist theory. In the book,Burman (1994,2008a) examines the historical contingencies and cultural assumptions that form the conditions of possibility for the establishment of various developmental psychology approaches. She shows how these approaches constitute powerful discursive resources in regulating women and families, in marginalising working class and ethnic minority people, normalising western, middle class family forms, and in pathologising mothers.