Often these parents present an odd picture of both selfishness and impoverished self-image. As always, we must employ a mixture of culture and science, community standards and professional expertise, in answering this question. Thus an emotionally abusive parent may reject the infant's smiling, the toddler's exploration, the schoolchild's efforts to make friends, and the adolescent's autonomy. Punishing positive, normal behaviors such as smiling, mobility, exploration, vocalization, and manipulation of objects is psychological maltreatment. Research from a variety of contexts has demonstrated that caregiver behavior can have a direct impact on the performance of these building blocks of human development.
Human beings possess an operant drive to mastery or motive to be effective in the world.
To punish this drive and its accompanying behaviors is a clear and present danger to the child's development of competence. Caregiver-infant attachment has emerged as one of the central issues in child development. Disruptions in early attachment has been linked to physical abuse, failure to thrive, and a variety of deficits in competence. Systematic efforts to discourage early attachment therefore pose a direct threat to adequate development and are grounds for diagnosing emotional abuse. Punishing self-esteem is psychological maltreatment.