The Development of the Concept of Object as Related to Infant-Mother Attachment

Abstract

Piaget (1937) suggested that the development of the object concept does not proceed at the same rate with respect to all objects. The purpose of the present study was to explore the relation between the development of person and object permanence and the attachment of an infant to his mother. 3 hypotheses were tested. (a) Babies tend to be more advanced in the concept of persons than in the concept of inanimate objects as permanent, but there are important' individual diferences. (b) Differences in the rate of development of person permanence are related to the quality of attachment behavior that a baby exhibits toward his mother. (c) Differences in the rate of development of person permanence can affect, in turn, the development of object permanence. The hypotheses were confirmed.