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The Human Child's Nature Orientation
Author(s) -
Lee Patrick C.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
child development perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1750-8606
pISSN - 1750-8592
DOI - 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00232.x
Subject(s) - contest , sociocultural evolution , psychology , orientation (vector space) , affect (linguistics) , field (mathematics) , developmental psychology , child development , social psychology , sociology , communication , political science , law , geometry , mathematics , anthropology , pure mathematics
This article pursues 3 interwoven objectives: to explore the hypothesis that the human child has a basic and developmentally significant orientation toward nature; to show that embracing this hypothesis would enrich and expand, rather than contest, the field's prevailing sociocultural account of child development; and, finally, to show that the hypothesis already enjoys a good fit with an emerging body of empirical findings. The article begins with a brief overview of the child's evolutionary background that centers on 2 constructs—Wilson's “biophilia” and Shipman's “animal connection.” It then turns to a discussion of 3 related areas of developmental research: children's interaction with pets, children's attitudes toward nature, and the animate–inanimate distinction. The article concludes with the proposal that this new emphasis on the human child's nature orientation may better position the field to address 21st‐century environmental issues and policy as they affect the child.