Mastery Motivation and Self-Regulation During Early Childhood
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abstract
During infancy and early childhood, the child develops rapidly from a primarily reflexive being who is highly dependent on preadapted mechanisms and on the caregiving environment to master the self, the nonsocial, and the social environments, to a progressively more independent and self-regulating individual who actively makes sense out of these three mastery domains. Through ongoing reciprocal interactions with the environment, children develop competence in aspects of the mastery domains to which they are exposed. In addition, they form expectations regarding relationships with objects, events, and people in the surrounding world, as well as among phenomena and events within themselves. It is also through these continuous reciprocal interactions that children accumulate invaluable experiences, colored with meanings, values, and emotions, that will shape their future development.
