Launched 25 years ago, the Oral History Project of SRCD is now available on this website to members of the Society as well as other interested scholars. Interviews of 135 major figures in the fields of child development and child psychology, as well as other related fields, are included in the collection. Since the introduction of the Oral History Project, SRCD has released 36 transcripts with planned monthly release of new interviews in conjunction with SRCD’s e-news. Each person was interviewed by someone whom he/she selected, and the recordings were then transcribed, edited for accuracy, and approved before inclusion in the collection. Some scholars in this project are now deceased, while others are alive and well; many played key roles in the governance or service of SRCD. Approximately 50 more interviews are now in progress.
[click here] to view a list of interviews that are still in the process of being transcribed.
The transcripts in this project should be of interest for a variety of reasons, including instruction both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Scholars interested in historical roots and trends in the field and those concerned about the emergence of research, policy, and practice concerning children and families will find a wealth of informative history in these interview transcripts. An example of how the transcripts may be used is the article by Claire E. Cameron and John W. Hagen (2005), “Women in child development: Themes from the SRCD Oral History Project” (History of Psychology, 8, 289-314, 2005), in which quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted on 47 early oral histories of women who became leading scholars and spokespersons in child development.
Topics that could be pursued to learn just when they became of interest and how they emerged as being of interest might include, for example, the emergence of a commitment to social issues and social policy by persons as well as by the Society itself; the interest or commitment to the study of psychopathology in children and youth; the study of children of color or different ethnicities in various parts of the world; shifts in disciplines that took on the focus of children or development; and a multidisciplinary approach to research in child development.
Recently added oral history interviews are listed below:
| Kathryn E. Barnard: Interview / CV | Aletha C. Huston: Interview / CV |
| Catherine Ann Cameron: Interview / CV | Qicheng Jing: Interview / CV |
| David Elkind: Interview / CV | Michael L. Posner: Interview / CV |
| William Sterling Hall: Interview / CV | Elliot Turiel: Interview / CV |
All oral history interviews are listed below:
** Most recent additions
| Mary Ainsworth: interview / CV | Jerome Kagan: Interview / CV |
| Janet Wilde Astington: Interview / CV | Lewis P. Lipsitt: Interview / CV |
| ** Kathryn E. Barnard: Interview / CV | Eleanor Maccoby: Interview / CV |
| Jack Block: Interview / CV | Gerald Patterson: Interview / CV |
| Orville “Bert” Gilbert Brim Jr.: Interview / CV | Josef Perner: Interview / CV |
| Urie Bronfenbrenner: Interview / CV | ** Michael L. Posner: Interview / CV |
| ** Catherine Ann Cameron: Interview / CV | Julius Richmond: Interview / CV |
| Leon Eisenberg: Interview / CV | Miriam K. Rosenthal: Interview / CV |
| ** David Elkind: Interview / CV | Carolyn Rovee-Collier: Interview / CV |
| Norman Garmezy: Interview | Sir Michael Rutter: Interview / CV |
| Eleanor Gibson: Interview / CV | Sandra Scarr: Interview / CV |
| Jacqueline Goodnow: Interview / CV | Keith Stanovich: Interview / CV |
| ** William Sterling Hall: Interview / CV | Harold H. Stevenson: Interview |
| E. Mavis Hetherington: Interview / CV | Ann Streissguth: Interview / CV |
| Brian Hopkins: Interview / CV | ** Elliot Turiel: Interview / CV |
| ** Aletha C. Huston: Interview / CV | Peter Vietze: Interview / CV |
| Wendell Jeffrey: Interview / CV | Emmy Werner: Interview / CV |
| ** Qicheng Jing: Interview / CV | Edward Zigler: Interview / CV |