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Chapter 6 - The Preschooler

The Emergence of the Person

from Part II - The Growth of Meaning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2025

L. Alan Sroufe
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
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Summary

Preschoolers purposefully seek to understand the environment. Their social world expands, as they work hard to interact with peers. Accompanying this active stance are surges in memory and other aspects of understanding the self in the world. Coherence in the organization of the emerging person becomes much more apparent, in both behavior and the child’s internal world, as seen in the child’s representation. Inquisitiveness and beginning understanding of causality are major strengths of the toddler. Because this understanding is limited, toddlers may at times attribute too much credence to their own perspective and too great a role to the self in causation. Thus, they can feel bad when negative experiences such as divorce happen, believing that they are the cause.

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Type
Chapter
Information
The Development and Organization of Meaning
How Individual Worldviews Develop in Relationships
, pp. 67 - 84
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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  • The Preschooler
  • L. Alan Sroufe, University of Minnesota, June Sroufe
  • Book: The Development and Organization of Meaning
  • Online publication: 11 June 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009385480.009
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  • The Preschooler
  • L. Alan Sroufe, University of Minnesota, June Sroufe
  • Book: The Development and Organization of Meaning
  • Online publication: 11 June 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009385480.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Preschooler
  • L. Alan Sroufe, University of Minnesota, June Sroufe
  • Book: The Development and Organization of Meaning
  • Online publication: 11 June 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009385480.009
Available formats
×