sometimes chaotic demands on motor and cognitive
development. Her most important legacy was the be-
lief that scientists and parents will fully grasp the les-
sons of development, if they just let babies be their
teachers.
See also: DEVELOPMENTAL NORMS; INFANCY; STAGES
OF DEVELOPMENT
Bibliography
Coghill, George. Anatomy and the Problem of Behavior. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1929.
Conel, Leroy. The Post-Natal Development of the Human Cerebral Cor-
tex, Vol. 1: Cortex of the Newborn. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1939.
Dalton, Thomas. ‘‘Was McGraw a Maturationist?’’ American Psychol-
ogist 51 (1996):551–552.
Dalton, Thomas, and Victor Bergenn, eds. Beyond Heredity and En-
vironment: Myrtle McGraw and the Maturation Controversy. Boul-
der, CO: Westview Press, 1995.
Dalton, Thomas, and Victor Bergenn. ‘‘John Dewey, Myrtle
McGraw, and Logic: An Unusual Collaboration in the 1930s.’’
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 27, no. 1 (1996):69–
107.
Dalton, Thomas, and Victor Bergenn. ‘‘Myrtle McGraw: Pioneer in
Neurobehavioral Development.’’ In Gregory Kimble and Mi-
chael Wertheimer eds., Portraits of the Pioneers in Psychology.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1998.
Gottlieb, Gilbert. ‘‘Myrtle McGraw’s Unrecognized Conceptual
Contributions to Developmental Psychology.’’ Developmental
Review 18 (1998):437–448.
Tilney, Frederick. Master of Destiny. New York: Hoeber, 1929.
Publications by McGraw
Growth: A Study of Johnny and Jimmy. New York: Appleton Century
Crofts, 1935.
The Neuromuscular Maturation of the Human Infant. New York: Co-
lumbia University Press, 1943.
‘‘Memories, Deliberate Recall and Speculations.’’ American Psycholo-
gist 45 (1990):934–937.
Thomas C. Dalton
Victor W. Bergenn
MEDIATION
When a marriage is dissolving, the spouses must
reach agreement on property division, spousal sup-
port, child custody, and parental visitation. With the
advent of ‘‘no-fault’’ divorce laws, the process of
reaching a settlement between the divorcing spouses
has become increasingly private. The high costs asso-
ciated with the more public and formal legal process-
es has led many divorcing spouses to seek a low-cost
alternative: divorce mediation. Much has been writ-
ten about the reasons for this trend toward the
‘‘privatization’’ of divorce, including the increase in
no-fault divorce and the elimination of the ‘‘tender
years’’ presumption, which used to influence judges
to award child custody to the mother. When divorce
is no longer contingent on proving fault, and when
the courts have no strong guidelines for making cus-
tody determinations, there are few compelling rea-
sons to rely on legal intervention to dissolve a
marriage.
Another influence on the growth of private ap-
proaches to determining divorce agreements has
been the research on the effects of divorce on chil-
dren’s development. Divorce often results in the loss
of contact with the noncustodial parent, less effective
parenting, and reduced financial resources. These
negative consequences have been linked to more be-
havior and peer problems in children. Studies have
shown that cooperation between the ex-spouses on
parenting issues, despite their continued personal
conflict, can mitigate the negative effects of the di-
vorce on children’s development.
For these reasons, divorce mediation has
emerged in recent years as a more suitable alternative
to court-ordered approaches. Mediation holds the
promise of being cheaper, takes less time to reach set-
tlement, and can effectively prevent many custody
disputes from going to court. By allowing the ex-
spouses to reach agreement on child custody private-
ly, the amount of conflict between the parents might
diminish, the settlement might be fairer for both par-
ties, and contact between the child and each parent
can be maintained. These improvements in the peri-
od immediately following the divorce should then at-
tenuate any short-term negative effects on the
children and improve their adjustment. This article
examines the evidence for the benefits of mediation
and its effects on parent and child adjustment.How Mediation Works
Mediation is defined as any strategy or approach
to resolving conflict that arrives at a settlement agree-
able to the parties. In divorce mediation, the spouses
meet with an impartial third party to reach an agree-
ment regarding child custody and other issues. Two
forms of divorce mediation are generally recognized.
Child custody mediation is specific to the issues of
each parent’s right to custody and visitation of their
children. Comprehensive divorce mediation deals
with other issues such as property distribution and
spousal support. Some mediation programs involve
an average of two or three sessions, whereas others
may use as many as ten sessions.
Unlike adversarial methods of reaching divorce
settlements, such as litigation or out-of-court negotia-
tion between the spouses’ lawyers, mediation occurs
with one professional, assumes the parties will coop-
erate to reach an agreement rather than compete to
get the most for themselves, and allows the spouses252 MEDIATION