Transactional Models in Early Social Relations

TLDR

Early assessments of children fail to predict developmental outcomes because development proceeds through stage‑like restructurings, and exceptional behaviors persist only when supported by exceptional caretaking; otherwise, negative transactions initiated by parents’ abnormal attributions can create self‑fulfilling prophecies. The study aims to examine how parents’ cognitive processes shape their perceptions of their children and subsequent caregiving behaviors, using dialectical interpretations to uncover the contradictions that drive cognitive change.

Abstract

Predictions of developmental outcomes based on early assessments of the child have proven inadequate. Development consists of a series of stage-like restructurings of behavior as the child advances through life. Continuities in exceptional behavior generally do not bridge these stages unless those exceptional behaviors are maintained by an exceptional caretaking environment. Such exceptional caretaking can be related to a mother’s cognitive inability to make developmental sense of the behavior of her child. A sequence of negative transactions can be started when an infant is seen as being abnormal either through his history, appearance, or behavior. The parent who makes this concrete attribution will treat the child in such a way as to create a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’. Research must be directed at the variety of ways that parental levels of cognizing influence their perceptions of their offspring, which perceptions in turn influence their behavior toward their offspring. Dialectical interpretations offer a new tool for understanding the contradictions that motivate cognitive change.