INFANTS RESPONSES TO MATERNAL UNRESPONSIVENESS

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把积极的注意力放在娃娃身上时，他们会抗议，把娃娃当作婴儿对待。婴儿的抗议表明不安，可能是由于他们将母亲的行为解释为情感上的不可用，可能是嫉妒的早期形式。在这些结果的基础上，提出的两项研究旨在：记录年幼婴儿的“嫉妒”反应；确定嫉妒反应是否不同于在令人不安的情况下表现出的消极反应，确定嫉妒诱发是否主要与离散的情感表达有关；并确定个体差异是否可以通过婴儿或母亲的特征来预测。研究1将通过在6- 9个月的婴儿中实施我们的嫉妒诱导范式来解决年幼婴儿嫉妒的可行性。婴儿将暴露在四种情况下的母亲无反应。在两个，他们的母亲，然后一个陌生人，会参加一本图画书；在另外的两集里，他们的母亲和一个陌生人会照顾一个洋娃娃。如果婴儿被母亲照顾洋娃娃的情况弄得心烦意乱，那么对婴儿消极的面部表情、声音窘迫和挣扎的跨上下文比较将表明他们有嫉妒心。研究2将通过观察婴儿在三种干扰下面部表情的风格和强度来研究婴儿嫉妒的更详细特征，这三种干扰包括：母亲分离，母亲采用“静止脸”和嫉妒诱导情境，在这种情境下，母亲将实际在场并对玩偶表达积极的影响，就像它是一个真正的婴儿一样。此外，在扰动前后将观察到母婴面对面的互动。跨背景和跨情绪比较将评估情绪表达的优势、稳定性和强度，以及是否可以通过母亲和/或婴儿的特征来预测个体差异。我们认为，当婴儿看到母亲在玩洋娃娃时，会有越来越多的干扰，这就暗示了嫉妒，并以一种类似于在母亲不可用的其他情况下观察到的方式表现出来。我们预计，对大多数婴儿来说，对嫉妒诱因的主要反应是愤怒，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部稳定性分别表明情感处理和气质特征的差异，并可能是个人内部和人际功能中嫉妒的后期维度的前兆。

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.