The Influence of the Social Context on Infants' Reactions to New People (original) (raw)
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Early Infant Social Interaction with Parents and Strangers
Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 1981
This paper extends the observations of early mother-infant face-to-face interaction to situations in which infants 1 to 6 months of age interact with fathers and strangers. Videotaped records of these laboratory interactions were scored second by second. We saw differences in the behavior of both infants and adults in these interactions. Even infants less than 2 months of age behaved distinctively with the different adults in these settings. Infants showed more positive affective displays with both parents than with strangers. The implications of these findings for the theoretical understanding of the infant's affective development as well as for public health concerns are discussed.
Sensitivity to Social Contingency From Mothers and Strangers in 2-, 4-, and 6-Month-Old Infants
Infancy, 2003
Infants' sensitivity to changes in social contingency was investigated by presenting 2-, 4-, and 6-month-old infants with 3 episodes of social interaction from mothers and strangers: 2 contingent interactions and 1 noncontingent replay. Three orders were presented: (a) contingent, noncontingent, contingent; (b) contingent, contingent, noncontingent; and (c) noncontingent, contingent, contingent. Contingency and carryover effects were shown to both mothers and strangers in the different orders of presentation. Infants were more visually attentive to contingent interactions than to the noncontingent replay when contingent interactions occurred prior to the replay, and the infants' level of attention to the noncontingent replay carried over to subsequent contingent interactions. The 4-and 6-month-old infants showed contingency and carryover effects by their visual attention and smiling. Examination of effect sizes for attention suggests 2-month-old infants may be beginning to show the effects. Reasons for age changes in sensitivity to social contingency are discussed.
Infants' sensitivity to familiar imperfect contigencies in social interaction
Infant Behavior and Development, 1998
Four-and five-month-old infants participated in face-to-face interactions with their mothers and with strangers. The contingent responsiveness for vocalizations and smiles was assessed for each partner in both interactions. For vocalizations and for smiles, infants were more responsive to strangers whose level of contingent responsiveness to them was similar to that of their mothers and they were less responsive to strangers who were either more contingent or less contingent to them than their mothers. Results are supportive of the hypothesis that infants develop sensitivities to the particular imperfect social contingency present in their parental interactions and, as a consequence, they are most responsive to others who interact with levels of contingency similar to those with which they are familiar. social contingency adult-infant interaction self efficacy smiling vocalization
Infancy, 2006
Two-month-old infants (N = 29) participated in face-to-face interactions with their mothers and with strangers. The contingent responsiveness for smiles and vocalizations, while attending to the partner, was assessed for each partner in both interactions. For smiles and for vocalizations, infants were less responsive to the stranger relative to the mother when the stranger's contingent responsiveness was either more contingent or less contingent than that of the mother. Results are supportive of the hypothesis that young infants develop sensitivities to levels of social contingency present in their maternal interactions, which influence their responsiveness to others. Infants' early awareness of the contingency between self-actions and external consequences occurs most readily in parent-infant face-to-face social interactions (Neisser, 1991). Parents tend to respond contingently to infants' vocalizations, gestures, and facial affect. For infants under 6 months, parental responses to infant
Infancy, 2008
Observers watched videotaped face-to-face mother-infant and stranger-infant interactions of 12 infants at 2, 4, or 6 months of age. Half of the observers saw each mother paired with her own infant and another infant of the same age (mother tapes) and half saw each infant paired with his or her mother and with a stranger (infant tapes). Observers were asked to judge which was the mother-infant dyad in each pair. Observers' accuracy improved as infants aged and was above chance for both mother and infant tapes when infants were 6 months. Differences between mother-infant and stranger-infant dyadic communication patterns also emerged as the infants aged. At 6 months, mother-infant dyads had more symmetrical communication and less asymmetrical communication than stranger-infant dyads. Infants are perceptually able to discriminate mother from others very early in life. Newborns actively change their sucking behavior to hear their mothers' voices rather than voices of other women (DeCasper & Fifer, 1980). Discrimination based on vision alone occurs by 2 months, if not earlier (
Social and Communicative Development in Infancy
Handbook of Social Development, 1992
The evidence presented in this chapter suggests that infant communicative action is highly context specific, showing remarkable variability to even subtle alterations of the social· and physical settings in which interaction occurs. The chapter includes reviews of research on affective communication during face-to-face interactions between infants and their social partners, gestural communication in adult-infant interaction, differences in mother versus father interac;tive patterns with infants, and finally, research on how infants interact in group settings in the family and with peers. These areas reflect the research interest and expertise of the authors and are not intended to cover the scope of work in infant social and communicative development. Rather, our purpose is primarily conceptual: To show by example that infant social and communicative action is constituted by the dynamic interplay between individuals and the social contexts and physical settings in which that interaction occurs.
Infants’ understanding of everyday social interactions: A dual process account
Cognition, 2010
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Expectancies for social contingency in 2-month-olds
Developmental Science, 1999
In a classic report, Murray and Trevarthen (Emotional regulation of interaction between two-month-olds and their mothers. In T. Field & N. Fox (Eds), Social perception in infants (pp. 101± 125). Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1985) suggested that 6-to 12-week-olds were sensitive to contingency in maternal stimulation because they became upset during the replay of their mothers' behavior during an initial period of live interaction over closed circuit TV. However, a number of concerns were raised about the procedure and it was argued that infants may simply have become increasingly fussy over time. To clarify this very important issue, we adopted a three-condition design (live ±replay ±live) and modified Murray and Trevarthen's procedure by inserting a seamless shift from the initially live interaction period to a replay period of good maternal behavior. This was followed by a seamless shift back to a subsequent live interaction. Two-month-old smiling and gaze decreased while frowning and mouth closures increased during the replay period relative to the initial live interaction period, replicating Murray and Trevarthen's results. Fussiness over time did not account for these results because seven of the ten babies increased their positive behaviors and decreased negative behaviors during the second live interaction period, and there was a significant increase in their visual attention to their mothers, thus suggesting a renewed interest in the previously noncontingent partner.