R. P. Hobson, or Peter Hobson, is a

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known for his work on

autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

and experimental

child psychology Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, ...

. His research leads him to conclusions concerning the origins of

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, summarized in a book for the general reader, The Cradle of Thought. The core of his analysis is that human minds are the outcome of a successful series of interactions between infant and caregiver(s). In this Hobson's research has built on foundations established by

Colwyn Trevarthen Colwyn Trevarthen (2 March 1931 – 1 July 2024) was a New Zealand-British academic who was Professor of Child Psychology and Psychobiology at the University of Edinburgh. Background Trevarthen was born in Auckland, New Zealand on 2 March 1931. ...

from the mid-1970s onwards. Trevarthen identified distinct steps in pre-lingual infant development, Primary Intersubjectivity and Secondary Intersubjectivity, which endow the infant's developing mind/brain with the architecture necessary for the achievement of symbolic thought. Hobson throws further light on this basic claim by examining what occurs in cases where, for genetic or

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reasons, infants are denied the opportunity to investigate

intersubjective Intersubjectivity describes the shared understanding that emerges from interpersonal interactions. The term first appeared in social science in the 1970s and later incorporated into psychoanalytic theory by George E. Atwood and Robert Stolorow, ...

relationships. To achieve a rare vantage point on human development without

unethical Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied eth ...

experimentation, Hobson examines cases of

, Down syndrome,

congenital A birth defect is an abnormal condition that is present at childbirth, birth, regardless of its cause. Birth defects may result in disability, disabilities that may be physical disability, physical, intellectual disability, intellectual, or dev ...

blindness and extreme social deprivation (for which statistically significant numbers of orphans rescued from

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's Romanian

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...

s were available). The obstacles each of these circumstances placed in the way of normal infant-caregiver interaction are finely examined. Hobson's argument constitutes a challenge to certain flavors of sociobiology and Evolutionary psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, in that it traces the conception of the human mind back to a 'cradle' of social interactions, without which consciousness in the full, human sense is unobtainable. On the other hand, Hobson demonstrates that a hard-wired emotional connection is crucial for an infant to start the process of intersubjective learning. The experience of having an emotion elicited by another human being, and eliciting emotional responses in others, is identified as the material out of which humans fashion their sense of self (philosophy), self, Other (philosophy), other, object (philosophy), object and symbol. Hobson's thesis is of growing interest in Philosophy of mind, Philosophy of Mind and related disciplines. Edward Skidelsky suggests that Hobson fatally overlooks the fact that people with autism learn to speak (see External Links, below). Others have understood Hobson to be blaming parents for autism, a charge explicitly rejected in The Cradle of Thought.

Publications

* The Cradle of Thought 2002 *Cognitive and social factors in the development of infants with Down Syndrome. Down Syndrome Research and Practice. Moore DG, Oates JM, Hobson RP and Goodwin J. (2002) *On engaging with people in early childhood: The case of congenital blindness. Clinical Child Psychology & Psychiatry. Sandler AM and Hobson RP (2002) *Are infants with autism socially engaged? A study of retrospective parental reports. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Wimpory DC, Hobson RP, Williams JMG and Nash S. (2000) *Imitation and identification in autism. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 40: 649-659. Hobson RP and Lee A. (1999) *Autism and Congential Blindness. Journal of Autism and Development Disorders, 29: 45-56. Hobson RP and Lee A. (1999) *Individual differences in young children's IQ: A social-developmental perspective. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 40: 455-464. Crandell LE and Hobson RP (1999) *Autism and the Development of Mind 1993

External links

Interview in New ScientistCriticism from Edward SkidelskyMore background on the concepts of Primary and Secondary intersubjectivityPeter Hobson's current researchReview of Cradle of Thought
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobson, Peter Academics of the University of London Autism researchers 21st-century British psychologists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)