ABSTRACT
A child's emotional development is closely related to the satisfaction of that child's dependency needs in infancy. The fulfilment of these needs and especially the fulfilment of the need for warm emotional contact is the basis of a child's first relationship and it is this relationship or attachment that leads to other relationships and a child's social life. It is out of social experience in association with growing cognition that secondary emotions develop and it is the quality of these social experiences that dictate the nature of the secondary emotions that are formed and the degree to which they are developed. Parenting is essential for the survival of children who are all born helpless and is usually delivered by a child's natural mother and father though in exceptional circumstances it can be delivered by other people. The psychological insensitivity on the parent's part is only partial and the child does receive some warm emotional attention on unpredictable occasions.
