ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author stresses that children's development takes place in large measure through social relationships. Other people's behaviour towards the child, and the child's behaviour towards other people, influence the development of cognition, language, personality, emotion and, social behaviour. If it was possible for a child to grow up without any social relationships at all, and it probably is not, that child would not be recognised as fully 'human' in psychological terms. Evolutionary theory has described a range of reproductive strategies. Some species have enormous quantities of offspring but almost all of them die before they can produce offspring of their own. Family characteristics may influence the amount of sibling rivalry that occurs; for example, siblings had more positive relationships if parent-child relationships were also positive and parents had strong religious identifications, while siblings high in rivalry showed more depression and risky behaviour.
