You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Men and women are of the same species but of different gender. From a developmental point of view one can ask, what is the balance between the communal species-specific qualities and the differentiated gender qualities? Obviously any given analysis can focus exclusively on one or the other of these perspectives. Neither alone can tell the whole story. In the pursuit of rectifying the neglected and/or distorted views of female development, creative writers and investigators have directed their attention toward the delineation of that which is distinctly gender-related. While this important corrective has been long overdue, it too needs to be embedded in the appropriate context of universal human issues. Neither the particular nor the universal can be fully understood in the absence of the other.
The study of development during infancy provides a framework within which these two facets can be appreciated. Each normal baby is distinctly a boy or a girl. But infants of both sexes are immersed in and struggling with the same powerful issues of earliest development. Within the context of their family systems both sexes are establishing the fundamental rhythms of life, are engaging in their first social interactions, are beginning to explore the world, and are connecting their acts with the consequences of them. Affective and motivational systems are emerging. In short, the fundamental processes of self development are taking place.
How large a role the sex of the child may play in this complex set of developments is a question that can be looked at empirically. As part of a 25-year longitudinal follow-up study of a group of thirty normal families and their first children, I and several colleagues have been reading and