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Individual consistency in infant‐stranger encounters
Author(s) -
Smith Peter K.,
Sloboda Judith
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-835x.1986.tb01001.x
Subject(s) - psychology , affect (linguistics) , consistency (knowledge bases) , developmental psychology , construct (python library) , social psychology , infant development , communication , geometry , mathematics , computer science , programming language
The consistency of infant wariness to strangers was examined by arranging for each of eight infants to experience two encounters with each of eight strangers. The encounters were filmed and scored. The behaviour of the infants varied from predominantly positive to predominantly negative, but was significantly consistent across strangers, for individual infants. This consistency was present for measures of both positive and negative affect, and was taken as supportive of the ‘wariness of strangers’ construct. Male strangers produced significantly more negative affect in infants than female strangers.