ABSTRACT
This chapter considers three related topics: attachment; development of personal identity; and self-esteem. From both evolutionary and cultural views, the natural starting point for understanding personality development is infants’ attachments to their caretakers. The major social outcome of caretaking man is the integration of the infant in the group. Group integration is almost always a two-stage process. First the infant and primary caretakers become mutually attached and stay in close proximity; second, they start to disengage, and the infant is encouraged to form attachments with other group members. In that the development of attachment and personal identity involves interpersonal interactions, we might suspect that there would be parallels between them. Psychological centrality refers to the observation that not all aspects of the self are equally weighted in forming a general self-esteem. Some of a person’s narrow self-esteems count more (are more psychologically central) than others.
