Major Contributions, Awards, and Honors
Hall is famous not only in the world of psychology but also in the world of education. He was the first to link together genetic psychology and education. Hall also founded the American Journal of Psychology and was appointed the first president of the American Psychological Association. He also began the first formal American Psychology laboratory where he researched and was an advocate for the education of adolescents rather than a high school education to get students ready for college.
Hall is responsible for the creation of a psychological discipline called Educational Psychology. It is the study of how humans learn in educational environments and the effectiveness of education in general. Modern day examples of educational psychologists are School Psychologists and guidance counselors.
( http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/hall-g-stanley.pdf)
Hall is responsible for the creation of a psychological discipline called Educational Psychology. It is the study of how humans learn in educational environments and the effectiveness of education in general. Modern day examples of educational psychologists are School Psychologists and guidance counselors.
( http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/hall-g-stanley.pdf)
Theory of Recapitulation
Hall's theory of recapitulation says that every person goes through changes in the psychic and somatic senses which follow the evolution scale of the body and mind. Hall believed that children develop best when not forced into constraints but giving evolutionary freedom to grow and develop in whichever way suits them.
Up to age eight the child should be allowed to express "animal emotions" as energy levels are high. Age eight and onward is where formal learning should begin according to Hall. This is when the brain is at it's full weight and can absorb information. After this stage come adolescence, which in Hall's theory is when the child enters a "sexed" life. He says that co-education should no longer be allowed as a child cannot focus around members of the opposite sex. It is here, he says, that true education that will result in moral development, love and service to others will begin.
(http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/hall.htm#Biography)
Up to age eight the child should be allowed to express "animal emotions" as energy levels are high. Age eight and onward is where formal learning should begin according to Hall. This is when the brain is at it's full weight and can absorb information. After this stage come adolescence, which in Hall's theory is when the child enters a "sexed" life. He says that co-education should no longer be allowed as a child cannot focus around members of the opposite sex. It is here, he says, that true education that will result in moral development, love and service to others will begin.
(http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/hall.htm#Biography)