Experimental protocols for investigating relationships among mother-infant interaction, affect regulation, physiological markers of stress responsiveness, and attachment.
Gergely and Watson's (1996) social biofeedback theory of parental affect mirroring applies the conditional probability model of contingency perception to parent-child interactions. Infants are first evaluated at birth on neurological and temperament measures. Infants are also evaluated at 6 and 12 months on tasks that study social interactional determinants, infant attachment, and physiological reactions. The Strange Situation is completed at 12-15 months of age. The authors describe how the combination of these experimental and observational procedures allows specific developmental hypotheses to be investigated about the quality of contingent parental affect regulation, sensitivity to internal states, and security of attachment.
Nichols
K
K
Child and Family Center, The Menninger Clinic, Topeka, KS 66601-0829, USA. nicholks@menninger.edu
Gergely
G
G
Fonagy
P
P
D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000502:physiology; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000502:physiology; D002666:Psychology, Child; D013694:Temperament