The relationship between the cognitive and social spheres of human functioning and their context has long been regarded by social and behavioural scientists as a central theoretical issue. By the early 1980s a number of empirical studies had further elucidated the nature of this relationship but no attempt had been made to present a coherent picture of the research and developments in this increasingly popular area of study.

Originally published in 1982, the topics covered in this book filled the gap admirably. They present a view of the development of aspects of the self and of self-other relations and how these two lines of development interact within a given context. All the contributions attempt to portray the child’s developing awareness of the self in relation to the social world, but all consider it from different perspectives and in varying degrees of detail. This useful collection, by a number of well-known contributors, should still be of great value to students of developmental and social psychology.