ABSTRACT
Predictability is a major characteristic of human development. Under ordinary circumstances, physical, psychological, and social development follow an interrelated course that differs little in overall pattern from child to child, in spite of the active role played by each individual in the developmental process. At the psychosocial level in particular, all societies expose children to formative experiences through early affective and educational ties with close relatives and community members, followed by formal or informal schooling. Hand in hand with maturation, these experiences insure a high level of similarity in the manner in which children grow up to become full-fledged members of a particular social and cultural group.
