ABSTRACT
The Boston University longitudinal study led to a viewpoint about how to apply conceptualizations of the adaptive process to early human development. It is a particular viewpoint of adaptive behavior by which data from the first 18 months of life can be related to the second 18 months of life and the biological level can be related to the psychological level. Therefore in 1963, when the opportunity arose through the National Institute of Mental Health research development program to begin a new program of investigation, we decided to study the infant and caretaker as a system with a more detailed examination of the mechanisms of regulation, their relation to interactions and to events within the system, and their changes over time. One of our findings when we rated and assessed the sequence of infant–mother interactional issues was that the characteristics of negotiation of the first issue tended to predict the negotiation of subsequent issues, at least through issue 6. In other words, if we assessed the characteristics of adaptation between the partners right at the outset, when the system was first getting underway, we might gain basic insight into the idiosyncracies of adaptation that that particular system might show at subsequent levels of coordination, and something like an adaptive potential or adaptive capacity for any given infant–mother pair might be indicated.
