Emotion and Social Interaction in the Strange Situation: Consistencies and Asymmetric Influences in the Second Year

Abstract

CONNELL, JAMES P., and THOMPSON, Ross. Emotion and Social Interaction in the Strange Situation: Consistencies and Asymmetric Influences in the Second Year. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 733745. Current theories of socioemotional development point out that emotion may play an adaptive role in behavioral organization. This study examined the relations between emotional arousal and social interactive behaviors in the Ainsworth Strange Situation. The data for the study were from Thompson and Lamb. 43 infants were observed in the Strange Situation at 121/2 months and 191/2 months. Episode-by-episode ratings of 5 social interactive behaviors directed to mother or stranger were performed independently at 121/2 and 19 1/months: proximity-seeking, contact-maintaining, resistance, avoidance, and distance interaction. Continuous dimensions of social interactive behaviors were factor analytically derived within 2 separation and 2 reunion episodes. Time-sampled ratings of the infant's vocalizations and facial expressions were also independently assessed. Infants' emotional reactions were more consistent across episodes and less contextually sensitive than their pattern of social interactive behaviors. Emotion appears to play a more central role in predicting subsequent social interactive behaviors with mother than vice versa. Older infants' emotions were less consistent across episodes but more predictive of social interaction. Over a 7-month period, social interactive dimensions were more stable in infants with stable emotion ratings than the reverse. These data provide evidence of the central role played by emotion in the regulation of social interactive behaviors in the Strange Situation.