Some Personality Characteristics of the Culturally Disadvantaged

The relationship between sensitive maternal behavior and mother-infant vocalization during feedings was examined in an effort to determine this situational meaning of Ainsworth's concept of sensitivity. Ss were 28 white, middle-class mothers and their infants. Excerpts of home feedings videotaped at 6 and 9 months were coded for frequency of contingent vocal interaction and quality of vocal affect. Sensitive mothers were distinguished from insensitive mothers at each age period by differing vocal patterns. At 6 months, infants of sensitive mothers vocalized significantly less than did infants of insensitive mothers. Mothers in both groups responded to their infants' vocalizations equally as often. At 9 months, infants in both groups vocalized the same amount, while sensitive mothers vocalized more often in response to their infants than did insensitive mothers. The only significant difference in vocal affect was found in the greater positive affect among sensitive mothers at 9 months.     

SOME STRUCTURAL ASPECTS OF DEVIANT CHILD BEHAVIOR1

Covariation within behavior repertoires of problem children were examined. Two boys, referred for psychological help, were observed both at school and at home for about 3 yr. A coded observation system permitted scoring of 19 child-behavior categories and six social-environment categories. After a two-month baseline, behavior categories were intercorrelated, demonstrating that each child showed a group of behaviors that covaried. These groupings were specific to the home and school settings. Contingency management procedures were then applied to each child's problem behaviors in one setting. Next, a reversal phase was instituted, followed by resumption of the initial contingency management phase. These three phases lasted seven months, until the end of the children's public school terms. Results showed that the baseline group of covarying behaviors continued to covary over the three experimental phases. The children then entered a remedial education setting for three summer months, and then returned to schools and were observed in follow-up for 2 yr. The baseline group of behaviors continued to covary during both phases. The behavior covariations could not be accounted for on the basis of temporal relationships between the behaviors and social environment categories. Although no behavior covariations extended across either child's home and school settings, contingency management procedures produced across-setting effects.     

Comparison of Maternal Perceptions of Preterm and Fullterm Infants

We compared maternal attitudes and feelings in two groups of mother–infant dyads: 25 mothers with preterm newborns (M=30.9 weeks of gestational age) and 25 mothers with fullterm newborns (M=39.7 weeks of gestational age). Both groups were matched for infant sex, age (corrected in preterms) and birth order as well as for maternal age and education. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data on maternal attitudes and feelings about pregnancy and the first contacts with the newborn. Mothers completed rating scales to indicate the specific behavioural problems they perceived in their infants at 6 weeks and 3 months of (corrected) age. Observations of infant responses to visual and/or auditory stimuli were made at 6 weeks and 3 months in a laboratory setting. At 3 months, each infant was administered the Bayley Scale of Mental Development. There were no differences in maternal attitudes and feelings between the two groups of mothers prior to the birth. However, significant differences appeared after birth and indicated increased anxiety in mothers of preterm infants. Significantly more 6-week-old preterm infants were perceived by their mothers as irritable and to cry more than fullterm infants. At the age of 3 months, both groups of infants differed only in terms of irritability. Differences between the two groups of mother–infant dyads, age-related changes in these differences and relationships between maternal evaluations and the laboratory-based assessments are discussed in the context of contrasts in the stability of behavioural regulation in preterm and fullterm infants.     

The Cross-Modal Coordination of Interpersonal Timing: Six-Week-Olds Infants' Gaze with Adults' Vocal Behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis that 6-week-old infants are capable of coordinated interpersonal timing within social interactions. Coordinated interpersonal timing refers to changes in the timing of one individual's behavior as a function of the timing of another individual's behavior. Each of 45, first-born 6-week-old infants interacted with his or her mother and a stranger for a total of 14 minutes. The interactions were videotaped and coded for the gaze behavior of the infants and the vocal behavior of the mothers and strangers. Time-series regression analyses were used to assess the extent to which the timing of each of the infants' gazes was coordinated with the timing of the adults' vocal behavior. The results revealed that (a) coordinated timing occurs between infants and their mothers and between infants and strangers as early as when infants are 6 weeks old, and (b) strangers coordinated the timing of their pauses with the infants to a greater extent than did mothers. The findings are discussed in terms of the role of temporal sensitivity in social interaction.     

Differential reinforcement of vocal duration

The effects of differential reinforcement of vocal duration were examined in a series of experiments in which each of 28 subjects (Ss) emitted a vowel whenever a light was flashed. In the first phase of each experiment, a penny was dispensed after each of 20 responses. In the second and subsequent phases, only those responses whose durations exceeded a criterion were reinforced; when 10 successive reinforcements were presented, one phase was terminated and the next begun. The criterion for reinforcement in each phase was determined by a different schedule in each of six experiments; it ranged from 80 to 120 per cent of the mean duration of the 10 terminal responses in the prior phase. Differential reinforcement effected a large and systematic change in the duration of vocal responses as long as the responses selected for reinforcement had a sufficiently high probability of occurrence. This requirement was formulated as the difference between the criterion duration and the mean duration of the terminal responses in the prior phase, divided by their standard deviation. This statistic, named the shaping index, was correlated with the number of responses emitted before each phase was terminated. It was found to be large whenever the shaping process failed. Many Ss failed to tact the reinforcement contingency despite marked changes in their vocal behavior and extensive probing by a questionnaire, administered at the end of each session.     

Early detection of handicapping conditions in infancy and early childhood: Toward a multivariate model

The major purpose of this study was to relate to infancy the occurence of significant learning or behavioral problems in adolescence. Original participants in the National Collaborative Perinatal Project in Rhode Island, who were also judged as handicapped after school entry, comprised the sample for this study. Environmental factors and child performance data collected at birth and at 4, 8, and 12 months of age were examined in terms of their power to predict handicapping conditions in the adolescent. Our results indicated that maternal education was a more accurate predictor of later learning and behavioral competency than the child's own developmental status up to 12 months of age. Furthermore, combining child-centered data and maternal education did not enhance predictive accuracy beyond that of maternal education considered in isolation. These findings underscore the critical role of molar environmental variables as antecedents of school failure, and suggest that models for screening in the first year of life and of multidisciplinary team diagnosis for handicapped children should include both environmental and child-focused dimensions to minimize overall classification error.     

People and objects affect the quality of vocalizations in infants with down syndrome

The vocalizations of eight infants with Down syndrome were recorded longitudinally in relation to different social and non-social contexts. The infants were observed biweekly from 8 to 24 weeks and monthly up to 40 weeks. At each visit the infants were presented with their mother, a female stranger, and a rattle puppet, each alternately active and passive. Each condition lasted 60 sec. The results showed that by 4 months of age, the infants produced different types of vocal sounds in relation to environmental contexts. They produced significantly more melodic (speechlike) sounds, vocalic (non-speechlike) sounds, and emotional (crying, laughing and fussing) sounds when facing people than objects. By 6 months of age, these utterances began to be distinguished between mother and female stranger and active and passive adults. However, within the communicative context the overall amount of vocalic (non-speechlike) sounds produced was larger than the amount of melodic (speechlike) sounds. It is suggested that this low output of melodic sounds in the overall vocal production of these infants may adversely affect the development of more appropriate vocal behaviour.     

On the Origins of Disorganized Attachment and Internal Working Models: Paper II. An Empirical Microanalysis of 4-Month Mother–Infant Interaction

A microanalysis of 4-month mother–infant face-to-face communication predicted 12-month infant disorganized (vs. secure) attachment outcomes in an urban community sample. We documented a dyadic systems view of the roles of both partners; the roles of both self- and interactive contingency; and the importance of attention, orientation, and touch, as well as facial and vocal affect, in the co-construction of attachment disorganization. The analysis of different communication modalities identified striking intrapersonal and interpersonal intermodal discordance or conflict, in the context of intensely distressed infants, as the central feature of future disorganized dyads at 4 months. Lowered maternal contingent coordination, and failures of maternal affective correspondence, constituted maternal emotional withdrawal from distressed infants. This maternal withdrawal compromises infant interactive agency and emotional coherence. We characterize of the nature of emerging internal working models of future disorganized infants as follows: Future disorganized infants represent states of not being sensed and known by their mothers, particularly in moments of distress; they represent confusion about both their own and their mothers' basic emotional organization, and about their mothers' response to their distress. This internal working model sets a trajectory in development which may disturb the fundamental integration of the person. The remarkable specificity of our findings has the potential to lead to more finely focused clinical interventions.     

Temporal Relationships Between Gaze and Vocal Behavior in Prelinguistic and Linguistic Communication

This work reports longitudinal evaluation of the temporal relationships between gaze and vocal behavior addressed to interactive partners (mother or experimenter) in a free-play situation. Thirteen children were observed at the ages of 1;0 and 1;8 during laboratory sessions, and video recordings of free-play interactions with mother and a female experimenter were coded separately for children's vocal behavior (vocalizations and words) and gaze toward their interactive partners. The difference between the observed and expected cooccurrence of these two communicative behaviors was evaluated by transformation into z-scores. The most important findings are related to differences in the temporal relationship observed at age 1;0 between gaze and vocalizations and at age 1;8 between gaze and words. At the earlier age, the infants who exhibited greater coordination between gaze and vocal behavior than was expected by chance (z-score > +1.96) preferred to look at the interlocutor at the beginning of the vocal turn. Instead, when they were older and began to produce words, they frequently looked at the interlocutor at the end of the vocal turn. These results are interpreted as referring to characteristics of conversational competence in the prelinguistic and linguistic periods. Moreover, looking at the interlocutor at the beginning of the vocal turn at age 1;0 was found to be related to language production at age 1:8, highlighting a significant relationship between conversational competence during the prelinguistic period and language acquisition.     

Vocal imitation between mothers and infants

The aim of the present mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal study was to observe and describe some aspects of vocal imitation in natural mother-infant interaction. Specifically, maternal imitation of infant utterances was observed in relation to the imitative modeling, mirrored equivalence, and social guided learning models of infant speech development. Nine mother-infant dyads were audio-video recorded. Infants were recruited at different ages between 6 and 11 months and followed for 3 months, providing a quasi-longitudinal series of data from 6 through 14 months of age. It was observed that maternal imitation was more frequent than infant imitation even though vocal imitation was a rare maternal response. Importantly, mothers used a range of contingent and noncontingent vocal responses in interaction with their infants. Mothers responded to three-quarters of their infant's vocalizations, including speech-like and less mature vocalization types. The infants’ phonetic repertoire expanded with age. Overall, the findings are most consistent with the social guided learning approach. Infants rarely imitated their mothers, suggests a creative self-motivated learning mechanism that requires further investigation.     

Affective matching of odors and facial expressions in infants: shifting patterns between 3 and 7 months

Recognition of emotional facial expressions is a crucial skill for adaptive behavior. Past research suggests that at 5 to 7 months of age, infants look longer to an unfamiliar dynamic angry/happy face which emotionally matches a vocal expression. This suggests that they can match stimulations of distinct modalities on their emotional content. In the present study, olfaction–vision matching abilities were assessed across different age groups (3, 5 and 7 months) using dynamic expressive faces (happy vs. disgusted) and distinct hedonic odor contexts (pleasant, unpleasant and control) in a visual‐preference paradigm. At all ages the infants were biased toward the disgust faces. This visual bias reversed into a bias for smiling faces in the context of the pleasant odor context in the 3‐month‐old infants. In infants aged 5 and 7 months, no effect of the odor context appeared in the present conditions. This study highlights the role of the olfactory context in the modulation of visual behavior toward expressive faces in infants. The influence of olfaction took the form of a contingency effect in 3‐month‐old infants, but later evolved to vanish or to take another form that could not be evidenced in the present study.     

Just a talking book? Word learning from watching baby videos

This study examined the relationship between viewing an infant DVD and expressive and receptive language outcomes. Children between 12 and 15 months were randomly assigned to view Baby Wordsworth, a DVD highlighting words around the house marketed for children beginning at 12 months of age. Viewings took place in home settings over 6 weeks. After every 2 weeks and five exposures to the DVD, children were assessed on expressive and receptive communication measures. Results indicated there was no increased growth on either outcome for children who had viewed the DVD as compared to children in the control group, even after multiple exposures. After controlling for age, gender, cognitive developmental level, income, and parent education, the most significant predictor of vocabulary comprehension and production scores was the amount of time children were read to.     

The ontogenesis of lateralized behavior in the domestic cat, Felis silvestris catus

For the first time, the development of paw preferences in the domestic cat, Felis silvestris catus, is explored. Twelve cats were tested at ages 12 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year on a challenge requiring them to use one of their paws to retrieve food. To control for repeated testing of the same cats at different ages, the subjects' paw preferences were compared with those of cats tested just once, at 6 months (n = 11) or 1 year (n = 14) of age. Analysis revealed a significant effect of age on the distribution of cats' paw preferences. Cats were significantly more likely to be ambilateral than paw preferent at 12 weeks and at 6 months but more likely to display a lateral bias in paw use at 1 year. There was a significant positive correlation between cats' paw preferences at 6 months and at 1 year. Lateralized behavior was strongly sex related. Females had a greater preference for using their right paw; males were significantly more inclined to adopt their left. Analysis revealed no significant difference in the direction or strength of paw preferences of cats tested longitudinally or cross-sectionally at 6 months or 1 year of age. Findings indicate that cats develop paw preferences by 1 year and hint at a relative stability in preferred paw use over time. The strong sex effect observed strengthens the case for the influence of a biological mechanism in the emergence of motor asymmetry in cats.     

Comparing different boosters of planning interventions on changes in fat consumption in overweight and obese individuals: A randomized controlled trial

Single planning interventions have been found to promote short‐term dietary change. Repeated planning interventions may foster long‐term effects on behavior change. It remains unknown whether there is a critical number of boosters to establish long‐term maintenance of behavioral changes. This study aimed at investigating what social‐cognitive variables mediate the effects of the interventions on dietary behavior change. Overall, 373 participants (n = 270 women, 72.4%; age M = 52.42, SD = 12.79) were randomly allocated to one of five groups: a control group, a single planning group, and three groups with 3, 6, or 9 weeks’ repeated planning interventions. Follow‐ups took place 4, 6, and 12 months after baseline. Change in fat consumption was not promoted by any of the interventions. In terms of social‐cognitive variables, intentions, self‐efficacy and coping planning displayed a time × group interaction, with the 9 weeks’ planning group showing the most beneficial effects. Effect sizes, however, were very small. None of the tested planning interventions successfully promoted change in fat consumption across the 12 month period. This, however, could not be explained by problems with adherence to the intervention protocol. Potential explanations for this unexpected result are discussed.     

Preterm behavior,maternal adjustment,and competencies in the newborn period: What influence do they have at 12 months postnatal age?

This article examines whether preterm newborns' behavior and their mother's adjustment to the premature birth and infant hospitalization have an influence on subsequent infant development and behavior, maternal adjustment, and mother–infant relationship. The behavioral competencies of 42 well, singleton preterm infants (mean gestational age=31 weeks) were assessed, as were their mothers' adjustment (depression and coping) and competencies (knowledge of child development). At 12 months of postnatal age, child competencies (development and behavior) were assessed, together with maternal adjustment (parenting stress and depression). Mother–infant interaction also was observed. Regression analyses indicated that in the newborn period, maternal positive reappraisal and a planful coping style, more knowledge of child development, and previous experience with baby‐sitting were associated with better infant development (p=.002), maternal adjustment (p=.012), and mother–child relationship (p=.002) at 12 months. Newborn infant muscle‐tone maturity was predictive of better motor quality at 12 months (p=.011), and being a firstborn infant who was more sleepy and drowsy was associated with subsequent higher maternal parenting stress (p=.007). Social and educational support groups combined with an approach that assists mothers to develop problem‐solving coping styles may have a beneficial influence on infant development.     

Maternal Predictors of Rejecting Parenting and Early Adolescent Antisocial Behavior

The present study examined relations among maternal psychological resources, rejecting parenting, and early adolescent antisocial behavior in a sample of 231 low-income mothers and their sons with longitudinal assessments from age 18 months to 12 years. The maternal resources examined were age at first birth, aggressive personality, and empathy. Each of the maternal resources predicted rejecting parenting during early childhood in structural equation models that controlled for toddler difficult temperament, and rejecting parenting in early childhood predicted antisocial behavior in early adolescence. Rejecting parenting accounted for the indirect effect of each of the maternal resources on antisocial behavior, but a direct effect was also supported between maternal aggressive personality and youth antisocial behavior. Results highlight the importance of these relatively understudied maternal resources and have implications for prevention and intervention programs that focus on parenting during early childhood.     

The Effect of Maternal Depressed Mood on Infant Emotional Reaction in a Surprise‐Eliciting Situation

The purpose of this study is to examine the claim that an infant's ability to respond appropriately to an emotional situation varies according to the emotional state of the mother. Surprise expressions in mother and child were examined both in terms of paralinguistic aspects of surprise vocalizations as well as facial expressions. Seventy‐two infants and their mothers (mean age=8 months, range=5–11 months) were video‐ and audiotaped in their homes. Half of the infants, matched for age and gender, had mothers who reported depressed mood. Infants of mothers with depressed mood showed significantly fewer components of facial expressions of surprise compared with infants of nondepressed mothers. Mothers with depressed mood exclaimed surprise with a significantly lower pitch (mean F₀=386.13 Hz ) compared to nondepressed mothers (mean F₀=438.10 Hz ). Furthermore, mothers with depressed mood showed fewer associations between elements of emotional expression than the nondepressed group. Infants' expressions of surprise are influenced by maternal mood, resulting in reduced expression of the emotion in infants of mothers with depressed mood. These results are discussed in terms of coordination of vocal parameters in mother–infant dyadic interaction.     

Situation-based contingencies underlying trait-content manifestation in behavior

Two studies investigated whether situations are associated with the manifestation of Big Five trait contents in behavior. Several times per day for 2 or 5 weeks, participants reported their current Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability states and rated the concurrent situation on several characteristics. Multilevel models tested for the average individual's contingency of each Big Five state on each situation characteristic and for whether individuals differed from each other reliably in those contingencies. Results showed that (1) there are psychologically active characteristics of situations on which trait-manifesting behavior is contingent; (2) contingencies on psychologically active characteristics of varying situations are part of the explanation for the sizeable within-person variability in behavior; (3) individuals differ reliably in their contingencies, and such individual differences may partially explain individual differences in amount of variability; and (4) the situation characteristics that are psychologically active differ by trait. These findings suggest that within-person variability in personality states is meaningful and is related to situations, that personality psychology should characterize situations in terms of their relevance to personality states, and that process and individual-difference structure approaches can be integrated in personality psychology.     

Categorization and understanding of facial expressions in 4‐month‐old infants

This study examined whether 4‐month‐olds (N = 40) could perceptually categorize happy and angry faces, and show appropriate behavior in response to these faces. During the habituation phase, infants were shown the same type of facial expressions (happy or angry) posed by three models, and their behavior in response to those faces was observed. During the test phase immediately after the habituation phase, infants saw a novel emotional expression and a familiar expression posed by a new model, and their looking times were measured. The results indicated that, although 4‐month‐olds could perceptually categorize happy and angry faces accurately, they responded positively to both expression types. These findings suggest that, although infants can perceptually categorize facial expressions at 4 months of age, they require further time to learn the affective meanings of the facial expressions.     

Does aversive behavior during toddlerhood matter? The effects of difficult temperament on maternal perceptions and behavior

Seventy‐three mothers and their toddlers were observed when the children were 18 and 24 months of age in a series of laboratory procedures designed to assess relations among frustration distress, aggression/venting, and defiance, as indicators of aversive behavior, and their relations to maternal interactive style concurrently and over time. A second goal was to identify the predictors of aversive behavior at 24 months of age. Child aversive behavior as a predictor of increases in maternal negativity over time was also examined. Results indicated that distress, venting, and defiance were related to one another at 18 months of age. For boys, venting at 24 months of age, but not distress or defiance, was associated with greater maternal report of stress and higher incidence of behavior problems at 24 months of age. Venting behavior at 24 months of age was predicted by the interaction of early aversive behavior and low maternal positive guiding behavior. Increases in maternal negative behavior over the six‐month period were predicted by the interaction of earlier negative maternal behavior and child sex, with negative mothers of boys displaying greater increases in negative behavior at the later age. These findings are discussed in terms of the significance of early aversive behavior, in the context of mother–child interaction, for later problematic behavior. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.