Role of Selfobject Experiences in Affective Development During Latency

The overall intent of this article was to investigate the nature of the selfobject experiences of latency-age children and their role in affective development. The self psychology literature was searched to identify the various selfobject experiences. Ten selfobject experiences were noted to be significant for affective development in latency: twinship, efficacy, cultural, phantasy, evoked, affective attunement, self-delineating, idealizing, mirroring, and protective prohibitory. The contemporary psychoanalytic, developmental, and psychosocial bodies of literature were searched to examine the vital issues and characteristics of affective development in latency, including the importance of activities and interests, in affective development. Five significant developmental tasks in the affective domain were identified: the creation and sensation of a sense of self as distinct from others, affect tolerance, the capacity to manage internal urges, the development of an internal locus-of-control orientation, and the capacity to enter into and sustain a state of latency. Cognitive and physiological development were noted as important factors in the child's ability to attain these capacities, and the division of latency into an early and late period was deemed to be important.