INFANTS RESPONSES TO MATERNAL UNRESPONSIVENESS

婴儿对母亲无反应的反应

• 批准号: 6186099
• 负责人: Sybil L. Hart
• 金额: $ 7.3万
• 依托单位: TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-09-01 至 2002-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6186099
• 关键词: age difference; angers; behavior prediction; behavioral /social science research tag; child behavior; clinical research; developmental psychology; dyadic interaction; emotional dependency; emotions; fear; grief; human subject; infant human (0-1 year); interview; maternal behavior; mother child interaction; mother deprivation; parents; videotape /videodisc

Our previous interaction studies identified a phenomenon in which 12-month-old infants protest when their mothers direct positive attention toward a doll, treated like an infant. Infants' protests suggest perturbation, possibly due to their interpreting maternal behavior as representing emotional unavailability, and may be an early form of jealousy. Following up on these results, the two studies being proposed aim to: Document "jealousy" responses in younger infants; Ascertain whether jealousy responses differ from negative reactivity shown in perturbing situations, Identify whether jealousy inducement is predominantly associated with a discrete emotion expression; and Determine whether individual differences are predicted by infant or maternal characteristics. Study 1 will address the feasibility of jealousy in younger infants by implementing our jealousy inducement paradigm with infants in the age range of 6- to 9-months. Infants will be exposed to four conditions of maternal unresponsiveness. In two, their mothers, and a then a stranger, will attend to a picture book; and in two additional episodes their mothers, and then a stranger, will attend to a doll. Cross context comparisons of infants' negative facial expressions, vocal distress, and struggling will suggest jealousy if infants are found most disturbed by the condition in which their mothers attended to a doll. Study 2 will address more detailed features of infant jealousy by observing styles and intensities of infants' facial expressions in three perturbations, consisting of: maternal separation, mothers adopting a "still face" and a jealousy inducement situation in which mothers will be physically present and expressing positive affect toward a doll as if it was a real infant. Additionally, mother-infant, face-to-face interactions will be observed before and after the perturbations. Cross-context and cross-emotion comparisons will assess the predominance, stability and intensity of emotion expressions and whether individual differences are predicted by maternal and/or infant characteristics. We believe that jealousy will be suggested by increased disturbances when infants observe their mothers attending to a doll, and demonstrated in a fashion similar to that observed in the other situations of maternal unavailability. We expect that for most infants, the predominant response to jealousy inducement will be anger, but for others, sadness or fear will predominate. Individual differences and intra-individual stability in negative reactivity will suggest variations in affective processing and features of temperament, respectively, and may be precursors to later dimensions of jealousy in intra- and inter-personal functioning.

我们之前的互动研究发现了一种现象，当12个月大的婴儿的母亲将积极的注意力转移到被当作婴儿对待的洋娃娃时，他们会抗议。婴儿的抗议意味着不安，可能是因为他们将母亲的行为解释为情绪上的不可及，可能是嫉妒的一种早期形式。根据这些结果，拟议中的两项研究旨在：记录年幼婴儿的“嫉妒”反应；确定嫉妒反应是否与扰乱环境中表现出的消极反应不同；确定嫉妒诱导是否主要与离散的情绪表达有关；以及确定个体差异是否由婴儿或母亲的特征来预测。研究1将通过对6到9个月的婴儿实施我们的嫉妒诱导范式，来探讨在较小婴儿中产生嫉妒的可行性。婴儿将面临母亲无反应的四种情况。在两集中，他们的母亲，然后是一个陌生人，将关注一本图画书；在另外两集中，他们的母亲，然后是一个陌生人，将关注一个娃娃。对婴儿的负面面部表情、声音痛苦和挣扎进行跨背景比较，如果发现婴儿最受母亲照看娃娃的情况困扰，就会暗示他们嫉妒。研究二将通过观察婴儿在三种扰动下的面部表情的风格和强度来探讨婴儿嫉妒的更详细的特征，这三种扰动包括：母亲分离，母亲采取一种“静止的脸”，以及嫉妒诱导情景，在这种情景中，母亲会身临其境，像对待真正的婴儿一样对娃娃表达积极的情感。此外，在扰动前后，将观察母婴面对面的互动。跨情境和跨情绪比较将评估情绪表达的优势、稳定性和强度，以及是否通过母亲和/或婴儿的特征预测个体差异。我们认为，当婴儿看到他们的母亲在照顾娃娃时，会出现更多的干扰，并以类似于其他母亲无法得到母亲的情况下的方式表现出嫉妒。我们预计，对于大多数婴儿来说，对嫉妒诱导的主要反应将是愤怒，但对其他婴儿来说，悲伤或恐惧将占主导地位。消极反应中的个体差异和个体内稳定性分别表明情感加工和气质特征的差异，并可能是人际内和人际功能中嫉妒后来维度的先兆。