Early social learning and constancy in close relationship
Early social learning and constancy in close relationship

Summary/Abstract: social development starts early in the prenatal period and continues intensively throughout infancy. An infant’s experiences with a caregiver, their first close relationship, are encoded, stored, and used for further social development and functioning later in life. In this article, I outline a new theoretical view: through repetitive, sustained interaction with a primary caregiver infants acquire an implicit knowledge and higher memory schema of constancy in close relationship. That guides their ability to form and maintain close relationships not just in childhood, but throughout the lifespan as well. Furthermore, absence of a primary caregiver in infancy results in specific impairments in social functioning. Thus, I propose that absence of constancy in close relationship should be considered a specific form of early social adversity.

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