The Influence Of Childhood On Personality Development

Childhood is an extremely sensitive stage. In this phase the personality develops. Thus, the influence of childhood on personality is undeniable.

Childhood is so important that many of the problems adults experience arise as a result of this stage in their lives.

We must remember that everything we experience in childhood leaves a trace in our brain. It is a stamp of which we are not aware. But it affects us in certain ways.

Types of Reinforcement and Importance for Personality Development

When raising children, we can choose positive or negative reinforcement. The best thing you can do is find the middle ground between the two extremes.

• Positive reinforcement means praising the things the children do well. We ignore what they do badly or incorrectly. This can lead to great self-confidence. As a result, a child may not be able to take responsibility for his or her mistakes.
• On the other hand, there is the negative reinforcement. In this case, we mainly focus on everything that the child does badly. This can cause low self-confidence. The children then think that they are worth less. They mainly compare themselves with the others around them.

Both extremes are negative. They influence the personality of every child. When we are adults, we can have problems with our self-confidence. It is for this reason that we must look to our childhood. Because this can show us why we have to deal with certain problems. So we notice here the influence of childhood on personality.

The influence of childhood or how attachment to our parents defines us

A secure attachment

We speak of a secure attachment when all the child’s needs are met by the mother.

There is physical contact. The child knows that the mother will be there when he needs her. As a result, the child develops a healthy bond.

Anxious Attachment

The child has a mother who is very considerate and caring in some circumstances. But in other situations she is cold and distant. This creates an anxious or ambivalent attachment.

In this case, the influence of childhood and the consequence of this form of attachment is that the child grows up with a lot of uncertainty.

Avoidant Attachment

Insensitive mothers often ignore the needs of their children. As a result, an avoidant attachment develops here.

As a result, the children learn to reject their mother. They are independent and do not need the mother. In the future, they will have trouble forming relationships with other people.

As we can see, the safest attachment is the healthiest. But the fearful and avoidant attachments are more common than we think.

• A person who develops an anxious attachment during childhood is more likely to suffer from emotional dependence in their relationships with partners. This is because they have a hard time forging healthy bonds and being assertive.
• But we also see the influence of childhood on personality in avoidant attachment. These individuals will appear emotionally distant. When someone instinctively begins to get closer to them, they will run away.

It is difficult for these people to build stable and solid relationships with others.

Personality development during childhood

So we see how personality development during childhood is very sensitive to the reinforcement and attachment modes that occur during that period. This is mainly due to the relationship that the parents and especially the mothers maintain with their children.

So it is very helpful for us to know how to give proper attention to children. Because we want to make sure our relationship problems don’t affect them. We want to offer them a secure attachment.

Unfortunately, parents usually don’t pay attention to this. Because they have their responsibilities, their jobs and the constant need for attention from their children. As a result, all of this fades into the background.

But we must not forget that personality is formed during childhood. It is therefore up to the parents to do everything possible to prevent their child from having certain problems in the future.

Emotional dependence is the inability to create emotional bonds with other people. People experience fear and insecurity in relationships… All this does not just come out of nowhere. It has a reason and we find it in a person’s childhood.