The Role of the Guest: A Study in Child Development

Abstract

T I-IE IMPORTANCE of family and home experience in the child's development is recognized by all the sciences dealing with human behavior; much less attention has been given to the factors and processes involved. Particularly striking is the failure to study such an important factor as the role of the guest. What is the role of the guest in family life, with particular reference to the child's development? This article is a report on one phase of a larger study on the role of the guest. It is based on an analysis of 200 published autobiographies, to ascertain to what extent the authors made any reference to guests in their early home life or personal development. The only basis of selection was that the authors must have written to some extent of their early life. This particular use of autobiographical material in the study of behavior can be related to the discussions of Allport, Krueger, Burr, Murchison and others.1 Its use in the present study has a specific purpose, in addition to any other values inherent in it. This purpose is to show to what extent and in what ways persons, chiefly of distinction and intelligence, who survey in maturer years the scenes of their childhood, emphasize, without the promptings or suggestions of a research project, the role of the guest in their early family life and personal development. In other words, how do persons to whom the importance of a guest has not been suggested by questioners and questionnaires write of family guests in their early life development? It is believed that the answer to these questions is of value: first, as an indication of the importance which authors of autobiographies attach to the role of the guest; second, as a revelation of the ways in which the guest is considered to be important; and third, for the leads which it suggests for the personal interviews which constitute a subsequent part of a larger study.