Historian: One traditional childrearing practice in the nineteenth century was to make a child who misbehaved sit alone outside  Anyone passing by would conclude that the child had misbehaved  Nowadays, many child psychologists would disapprove of this practice because they believe that such practices damage the child' s self-esteem and that damage to children' s self-esteem makes them less confident as adults
However, no one disagrees that adults raised under that traditional practice were, on average, as confident as adults not so raised
With the traditional childrearing practice, passersby did not always make correct inferences about children's behavior by observing them outdoors.