ABSTRACT
While mastery motivation during child and adulthood may be viewed as differentiated into various motives, this differentiation is not thought to occur until post-infancy (Dweck and Elliot 1983; White 1959). Hence, infant mastery motivation has traditionally been considered to be a global individual characteristic. Given the predominance of this global viewpoint it is not surprising that research on infant mastery motivation has focused primarily on object-mastery behaviours (e.g. Jennings et al. 1979; Yarrow et al. 1975, 1982, 1983, 1984).
