Premium
Distance‐maintaining in infants' reaction to an adult stranger
Author(s) -
Ricard Marcelle,
Décarie Thérèse Gouin
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9507.1993.tb00009.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , reinterpretation , sign (mathematics) , pace , object (grammar) , social psychology , affect (linguistics) , communication , mathematical analysis , linguistics , philosophy , physics , mathematics , geodesy , acoustics , geography
In an infant‐controlled experiment, 38 babies aged 9–10 months, while accompanied by their mothers, were confronted with a novel inanimate object and an unfamiliar person. Among them, 17 who approached both the toy and the stranger were labeled ‘bold,’ while 17 others approached the toy but not the stranger, and were classified as ‘shy.’ A comparison of the familiarization strategies displayed by these two groups in the stranger situation was performed. It showed (1) that no fear nor any clear‐cut sign of negative affect towards the stranger appeared in either group; (2) that the same process of maintaining a distance between themselves and the stranger was apparent in all infants, bold as well as shy; and (3) that a main difference between the two groups was the pace at which they performed the same kind of distal familiarization. A reinterpretation of the function of distance‐maintaining in infant reaction to strangers is proposed, whereby it is seen as a positive and appropriate social behavior, rooted in the conception of persons that infants of that age are believed to possess.