Early Experience and the Life Path

The professors Clarke (U. of Hull, UK) challenge the widely held assumption that early experience has a disproportionate effect on later development. Drawing from over 40 years of empirical research and theoretical enquiry, they argue that the effects of early experiences are just the first steps in an ongoing and complex life path, on which the shaping or re-shaping of development can occur in any period. For example, child-rearing books to the contrary notwithstanding, they find no correlation between toilet training and adult personality.