ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the psychological dynamics involved in emotional development in childhood. These dynamics occur within the child and carer relationships and are a central aspect of the child's social environment impacting upon secondary emotions. The most powerful force influencing development is the child's need to survive and the negative emotion of fear is prominent in this process. A child's dependency needs are therefore central to his or her emotional development. Perhaps the most common way in which a child's dependency needs are satisfied is through an attachment to a single caregiver. However, multiple attachments and other arrangements may well be satisfactory providing they give the child support, not only in areas of instrumental dependency, but also in the sphere of emotional dependence. Temperament is therefore an influence on emotional development, though we would not call it an important process or a determining feature, the neural history of the newborn is too environmentally influenced for that.
