The progress of emotional development is intertwined with advances in social development. This is not only because the emotions unfold in a social context, but because broader aspects of emotional development, including the regulation of affect, take place within the matrix of caregiving relationships. In fact, the general course of emotional development may be described as movement from dyadic regulation to self-regulation of emotion. Moreover, dyadic regulation represents a prototype for self-regulation; the roots of individual differences in the self-regulation of emotion lie within the distinctive patterns of dyadic regulation (Sroufe, 1989).

The development of the social individual proceeds through a series of phases, from the first weeks when there is little awareness even that some stimulation emanates from the outside environment, through a dawning awareness of self and others, to reciprocal relationships, to a responsive partnership in the preschool years, wherein the child has internalized social values and the beginnings of self-control.