Joseph Church, 85; Psychologist, Author on Child Development

Joseph Church, 85, a psychology professor and author who wrote two well-regarded texts on child development, died Dec. 23 in New York City, Associated Press reported.

Church co-wrote “Childhood and Adolescence: A Psychology of the Growing Person” with L. Joseph Stone. Published in 1957, the book proposed a model of development less rigid than the dominant views of the time. The book discussed new research, including Jean Piaget’s theory on the stages of cognitive development, and presented the field of child psychology as one with many uncertainties.

In 1960, Church wrote “Language and the Discovery of Reality,” which described language acquisition as learning how to express feelings and needs, rather than learning a system of labels.

A native of Gardner, Mass., Church earned his undergraduate degree at the New School of Social Research in New York City. He earned his master’s degree at Cornell and his doctorate at Clark University. He taught at Vassar from 1954 to 1967.

He then taught at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate Center until he retired in 1985.