The early experience assumption: Past, present, and future

The assumption that “early experience is important” has attracted a considerable amount of research over the last half century. As a result, both our thinking about the role of early experience in personality development and the nature of that research have changed drastically. It has become apparent that there is no direct relationship between age and the impact which experience has on the individual, that young children are not necessarily more vulnerable even to quite severe adversities than older children, and that considerable variability exists in long-term outcome. Research has therefore had to take an evermore complex form, moving away from a mechanical association of early experience with outcome assessments to a much more dynamically oriented approach, in which account is also taken of inherent characteristics of the individual, the social context both before and after the experience, and the various turning points that the individual negotiates in traversing the developmental path to maturity. Prospective longitudinal studies are therefore essential to our understanding of the link between early experience and later adjustment, and these studies need to include not only accounts of the external experiences encountered but also assessments of the individual’s internal representations resulting from the encounters. It has also become apparent that some behaviour systems are more vulnerable than others and that a more thoughtful use of outcome measures is therefore necessary. Although the belief in the irreversibility of early experience as inevitable has been abandoned, the parameters defining the limits of reversibility have yet to be determined.