The recent explosion of new research about infants, parental care, and infant-parent relationships has shown conclusively that human relationships are central motivators and organizers in development. Relationships in Development examines the practical implications for dynamic psychotherapy with both adults and children, especially following trauma. Stephen Seligman offers engaging examples of infant-parent interactions as well as of psychotherapeutic process. He traces the place of childhood and child development in psychoanalysis from Freud onward, showing how different images about babies evolved and influenced analytic theory and practice. Relationships in Development offers a new integration of ideas that updates established psychoanalytic models in a new context: "Relational-developmental psychoanalysis." Seligman integrates four crucial domains: Infancy Research, including attachment theory and research Developmental Psychoanalysis Relational/intersubjective Psychoanalysis Classical Freudian, Kleinian, and Object Relations theories (including Winnicott). An array of specific sources are included: developmental neuroscience, attachment theory and research, studies of emotion, trauma and infant-parent interaction, and nonlinear dynamic systems theories. Although new psychoanalytic approaches are featured, the classical theories are not neglected, including the Freudian, Kleinian, Winnicottian, and Ego Psychology orientations. Seligman links current knowledge about early experiences and how they shape later development with the traditional psychoanalytic attention to the irrational, unconscious, turbulent, and unknowable aspects of the mind and human interaction. These different fields are taken together to offer an open and flexible approach to psychodynamic therapy with a variety of patients in different socioeconomic and cultural situations. Relationships in Development will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic psychotherapists, and graduate students in psychology, social work, and psychotherapy. The fundamental issues and implications presented will also be of great importance to the wider psychodynamic and psychotherapeutic communities.

The purpose of this outstanding new book is to explain how individuals develop through their relationships with others. Alan Fogel demonstrates that creativity is at the heart human development, arising out of a social dynamic process called co-regulation. He focuses on the act of communication - between adults, between parents and children, among non-human animals, even among cells and genes - to create an original model of human development. Fogel weaves together theory and empirical findings from a variety of disciplines - linguistics, biology, literature, cognitive and neural science, ethology, anthropology, and psychology - to demonstrate the continuous process model of communication. He contends that the human mind and sense of self must be seen as developing out of the processes of communication and relationship-formation between the subject and other individuals. Rarely has a work of scholarship so elegantly and so persuasively presented a complex psychological theory and its practical application. Developing through Relationships not only makes a substantial contribution to developmental psychology but also to the fields of communication, cognitive science, linguistics, and biology.

This authoritative, engaging text examines the key role of relationships in child and adolescent development, from the earliest infant?caregiver transactions to peer interactions, friendships, and romantic partnerships. Following the sequence of a typical social development course, sections cover foundational developmental science, the self and relationships, social behaviors, contexts for social development, and risk and resilience. Leading experts thoroughly review their respective areas and highlight the most compelling current issues, methods, and research directions. End-of-chapter suggested reading lists direct students and instructors to exemplary primary sources on each topic.

Social Exchange in Developing Relationships is a collection of papers that deals with the systematic study of the development of relationships. The papers discuss several theoretical perspectives, such as evolutionary theory, personality theory, cognitive developmental theory, equity theory, role theory, and attribution theory. One paper discusses romantic relationships—the evolution of first acquaintance to close or intimate commitment. Another paper presents the hypothesis that the factors causing a relationship to begin will also probably steer intermediate cognitive processes, eventually influencing the nature of the relationship. Commitment requires specific concepts such as input levels contributed to the relationship, duration of these inputs, and their consistency of occurrence. The equity theory suggests that equity principles determine the selection of one's mate and how they (the partners) will get along in the future. One paper analyzes the dynamic theories of social relationships and the resulting research strategies: that the conceptualization of a parameter of a social relationship can affect the choice of data collection techniques and other matters. Sociologists, psychologists, historians, students, and academicians doing sociological research, can benefit greatly from this collection.

How do people develop in their important relationships? How do two people come together to form a new, close relationship? How do relationships affect or determine who we are and who we become? These questions should be central to the study of mind and development, but most researchers neglect relationships and focus instead on analyses of individuals, as if people were basically alone, experiencing occasional fleeting moments with other people. Research based on this individualist assumption has dominated the behavioral and clinical sciences, but there are other voices, and they are growing. In this book, many of the scholars who are moving relationships and attachments back to the center of human development outline their central concepts, findings, and perspectives. People are fundamentally social, and relationships are part of the fabric of being human, forming an essential foundation that molds each person's mind and action. A mind does not reside in one person but in relationships and communities, composed of many people's interconnected minds, which mutually support and define each other. From the start and throughout life, each person develops strengths and vulnerabilities in important relationships in communities and cultures. Those relationships are so central to each person's activity and experience that without them, no scientific explanation can even begin to analyze mind and action. There is no mind without other people. There is no psychological vulnerability that does not involve others. The contributors to this book aim to establish a firm foundation for the role of relationships in human activity and health and to promote strong research by bringing together in one place most of the best research and theory on development and relationships. Their goal is to stimulate a more radical inclusion of relationships in mind, an ecological focus on the ways that relationships constitute action, feeling, and thought.

Bringing together key theories and research in a unique integrative approach, Karen Rosen guides the reader through the fascinating and interrelated themes of attachment and the self. In this comprehensive overview, she examines developing relationships with caregivers, siblings, peers and friends from infancy through to adolescence. Suitable as a core text for advanced-level modules on social and emotional development.

This second edition synthesizes the emerging knowledge base on the diversity of stepfamilies, their inherent concerns, and why so relatively little is still known about them. Its extensive findings shed needed light on family arrangements relatively new to the literature (e.g., cohabitating stepparents), the effects of these relationships on different family members (e.g., stepsiblings, stepgrandparents), the experiences of gay and lesbian stepfamilies, and the stigma against non-nuclear families. Coverage reviews effective therapeutic and counseling interventions for emotional, familial, and social challenges of stepfamilies, as well as the merits of family education and self-help programs. The authors explore prevailing myths about marriage, divorce, and stepfamily life while expanding the limits of stepfamily research. Among the topics included: • The cultural context of stepfamilies.• Couple dynamics in stepfamilies.• Gay and lesbian couples in stepfamilies. • The dynamics of stepparenting. • Siblings, half-siblings, and stepsiblings. • Effects of stepfamily living on children.• Clinical perspectives on stepfamily dynamics. For researchers and clinicians who work with families, it enriches the literature as it offers insights and guidelines for effective practice as well as possible avenues for future research.