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How young children cope with separation: Toward a new conceptualization
Author(s) -
Barrett Helen
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
british journal of medical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.102
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 2044-8341
pISSN - 0007-1129
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1997.tb01911.x
Subject(s) - conceptualization , cornerstone , psychology , separation (statistics) , folklore , developmental psychology , social psychology , sociology , history , artificial intelligence , archaeology , machine learning , computer science , anthropology
In this paper, it is argued that 'separation protest' and the protest‐despair‐detachment (PDD) pattern, having passed into folklore and become an almost undebated cornerstone in the literature on separation and attachment, continue to have a potent influence which needs to be reexamined, disputed and replaced. Three arguments are advanced: first, that the evidence for the PDD pattern was never substantial; second, that there is now and has for some time been ample evidence for alternative accounts of separation responses; third, that the PDD account, being premised on a model of the very young child as far less socially competent than recent research has indicated, stands in need of refinement.