ABSTRACT
Developing the person in relationship The child is born into a social world and we have seen how Mead (Strauss 1964) placed emphasis on the significant other for the acquisition oflanguage and also how one form of early learning was socialisation. Elsewhere, I Qarvis 1997) have suggested that values are learned pre-consciously through interaction with the significant other, and this is precisely how emotions are learned. Goleman (1996: 195) writes:
Such emotional learning begins in life's earliest moments, and continues throughout childhood. All the small exchanges between parent and child have an emotional sub-text, and in the repetition of those messages over the years children form the core of their emotional outlook and capabilities.
