Author: Renee Spencer, Ed.D.

This paper provides a review of relational theories of psychological development offered within feminist psychology, infancy research, and relational psychoanalysis. Areas of convergence and divergence among these theories are identified with particular attention to how psychological development, health, distress, and healing are defined, what the goal of development is understood to be, and how cultural contexts influence development. The author illustrates how a relational perspective shifts the focus of research and offers new insights into existing empirical evidence. The relational theories reviewed in this paper are applied to the risk and resilience research that has demonstrated that good connections with adults provide significant psychological protection for youth who are dealing with adversities.

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