B O O K R E V I E W
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BABIES: HOW RELATIONSHIPS SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT
FROM BIRTH TO TWO
LYNNE MURRAY
London: Constable & Robinson, Ltd., 2014, 256 pp, ISBN: 978-1-84901-293-5
Reviewed by Ira Glovinsky
When I first opened Lynne Murray’s beautifully illustrated
book and began to read, I immediately saw two seemingly tan-
gential images in my mind. One was Galileo’s telescope, and the
other was the Hubble telescope. What does this have to do with
The Psychology of Babies: How Relationships Support Develop-
ment from Birth to Two? When I was an undergraduate majoring in
psychology, the classic text for developmental psychology courses
was Church and Stone’s (1968) Childhood and Adolescence. I had
the opportunity to take Church’s course when he was in the midst
of updating the book. Like Galileo’s telescope in astronomy, Child-
hood and Adolescence gave us a broad, global view of the field
of developmental psychology, a general depiction without much
depth. Hundreds of years after Galileo’s first look at the stars, we
were able to put a “state-of-the-art” telescope into orbit that gave
us the opportunity to see brilliant, high-resolution views of the
vast objects in the universe. The details of many of the objects
have been so clear that they have given us stunning information
that was previously unobtainable. Murray’s book, The Psychology
of Babies, is like the Hubble telescope. She presents us with a
“stunning” view of early child psychological development across
the areas of social relationships, attachments, self-regulation and
control, and cognitive development. What Daniel Stern, Beatrice
Beebe, and others have given us through second-by-second video-
tapes of mother–child interactions, Murray gives us in text form,
a beautifully illustrated book on essential developmental topics,
showing us moment-by-moment interactions and explaining each
step so that we can see sequences of transactions from beginning
to end. The book is a visual and verbal presentation depicting
Arnold Sameroff’s (2009) transactional model of development. In
it, we witness the transactions between mothers and babies and get
a clear picture of what healthy contingency looks like in dyadic
relationships.
Direct correspondence to: Ira Glovinsky, School of Educational Leadership
for Change, Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA 93105-3814;
e-mail: ira1834@sbcglobal.net.
INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Vol. 36(3), 349–350 (2015)

C 2015 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health
View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com.
DOI: 10.1002/imhj.21507
349
Murray traces the course of the first 2 years of life by defin-
ing key concepts, describing each in depth, and presenting visual,
moment-to-moment illustrations to give the reader a multisensory
experience of the contingent transactions within the dyad. The
manner in which each concept is presented gives the reader a very
clear understanding of the content. Each chapter is broken down
into the microsystem details that were clearly unavailable during
the period of time when Church and Stone wrote their seminal
text on developmental psychology. Through the work of Murray,
we are placed at the center of the mother–child and father–child
relationships so that we can see the components of each. The chap-
ters provide the reader with a picture of the baby, the parent, and,
most importantly, the dyadic relationship. While psychopathology
is not the focus of the book, one clearly gets that when things are
not working, the “patient” is the “relationship” rather than either
member of the dyad. By observing the numerous sequences of
interaction, the reader is able to think about the consequences of
the back-and-forth transactions at each time point throughout the
sequence of contingency.
The descriptions in each of the areas that Murray covers con-
tain enormous richness, such that the reader gains a clear under-
standing of the topic. The photos reinforce the text. I recalled
how decades ago when I sat in Church’s class and listened, I of-
ten wondered what he had said or meant. Not so with Murray’s
presentation. The concepts are clearly explained and illustrated.
This book should be the classic text for developmental psy-
chology classes and infant and child mental health training. It
lays the foundation for an understanding of the critical issues in
parent–child relationships in Western culture. It would be wonder-
ful to build on this text cross-culturally to learn about individual
cultural differences and compare the steps in development from
one culture to another as well as to have the opportunity to visu-
alize transactions in various cultural contexts in the way that they
are presented in The Psychology of Babies.
For me, this book provides a wealth of information on three
core components of early child development: (a) individual differ-
ences, (b) the range of functioning that is within the “normal” range
350 • Book Review
of development, and (c) the central importance of relationships in
optimal child development.
In all likelihood, this will be a book that is read by under-
graduate and graduate students as well as professionals in the field.
Parents will be less likely to read it. The book does not present the
information in the fast-paced, often oversimplified manner that our
media favors, but those parents who do read it will benefit from
the enormous richness and wealth of information that the book
provides.
In a previous book review by Linda Geddes, published in
the New Scientist on July 28, 2014, she stated that “This book
should carry a health warning: reading it will probably make you
yearn to have another baby, but it may also make you worry if
you’ve done a good enough job with your existing ones.” As a
child therapist who works with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and
their parents, I see this issue differently. Parents intuitively know
when they are having difficulty with parenting and welcome seeing
“another way of doing it” that they may adopt in their own parent-
ing experiences. Parents in nonclinical populations also welcome
helpful information that can bolster their self-confidence. In ad-
dition, parents naturally compare their babies to other babies or
to what they read. I do not think that this book gives cause for
additional heightened concern.
Lynne Murray’s book provides parents with a very valu-
able vocabulary. Words such as “matching,” “contingency,” and
“attachment” provide information for parents that give mean-
Infant Mental Health Journal DOI 10.1002/imhj. Published on behalf of the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.
ing to their interactions with their babies. Murray does an ex-
cellent job of labeling, defining, and illustrating to concretize
parent–child experiences and to help a parent understand “why”
an infant or toddler may be doing what he or she is doing. I
find that providing a concept for parents often “grounds” them,
helping them to understand their child’s journey. This type of pre-
sentation will facilitate reflective thinking and insightfulness in
the reader. It will help parents to think about their interactions
with their child and to “keep their child in mind.” I believe this
book can provide parents with a framework for understanding
their child rather than an illusory “cure-all.” If a parent is strug-
gling, reading can be a wonderful motivator to seek additional
consultation.
In conclusion, I feel that Murray has given a “gift” to the
child development field as well as to parents who are motivated
to expand their knowledge about child development. I am already
looking forward to its sequel!
REFERENCES
Sameroff, A. (Ed.). (2009). The transactional model of development: How
children and contexts shape each other. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
Stone, L.J., & Church, J. (1968). Childhood and adolescence. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
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