Introduction: towards a fetal psychology

Developmental psychology has moved on from the description by William James (1890/1981) of the newborn’s awareness of the world as ‘a blooming buzzing confusion’ to considerations of how internal and external factors combine to influence the developing child from birth. But what about development before birth? Attempts to address this question have given rise to the relatively new field of fetal psychology that, for example, concerns itself with issues about the ways in which maternal psychological states may have an impact on the development of the fetus, and thereby on development after birth. Examining human development starting with life in the womb brings new perspectives as well as challenges to understanding of psychological development, some of which will be considered in this Special Issue on fetal psychology. This Special Issue considers the current status of the field by means of critical examinations of recent theoretical and methodological perspectives concerning fetal development as it pertains to the emerging mental life of the human fetus. For both perspectives, there are target articles, each followed by a commentary that strives to highlight issues raised, while adding new points to the debate. In his target article, Ellison highlights the impact of the introduction of the ‘fetal programming hypothesis’, first in epidemiology and subsequently across a broad range of disciplines concerned with developmental biology. As he points out, it has generated fresh interest in phenotypic plasticity, the mechanisms that govern it, and its place in evolutionary biology. A number of epidemiological studies link small size at birth, assumed to be a consequence of constrained prenatal energy availability, with adverse effects on the risk of various forms of chronic disease later in life. The cluster of chronic ill health associated with the metabolic syndrome and alterations of glucose metabolism are particularly implicated. Recent evidence suggests that epigenetic modification of gene expression affecting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may have a part in these effects (e.g. Gicquel, El-Osta, & Le Bouc, 2008; Meaney, Szyf, & Seckl, 2007).