Infant emotional expression and mother-infant emotional communication

Research Project

Project/Area Number	06451025
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	教育・社会系心理学
Research Institution	THE UNIVERSITY OF THE AIR
Principal Investigator	MIYAKE Kazuo The University of The Air, Faculty of Liberal Arts.professor, 教養学部, 教授 (70000627)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	UJIIE Tatsuo Fukushima University, Faculty of Education Associate Professor, 生涯学習教育研究センター, 助教授 (00168684)
Project Period (FY)	1994 – 1995
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1995)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000) Fiscal Year 1995: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000) Fiscal Year 1994: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
Keywords	emotional expression / emotional communication / mother-infant interaction
Research Abstract	1 : We conducted an analysis of the videorecordings of mother-infant interaction at home focusing on how infant's regulation of her/his expressions is enculturated through the mother's behavior. Specifically, a total 60 minutes interactios in the home was videorecorded when the infant was 5 month old. Home observations of this kind were conducted both in Japan and the United States. To date, we have been able to identify some trends towards similarities in maternal emotional response beween the two samples. Our data suggest mother's role of modulator of infant's positive and negative emotions. At the same time, it was found that the proportions of the Japanese mother's non-response to infant's positive, neutral and negative expressions are higher than those of the American counterpart. Although nearly half of the infant's positive expressions is responded positively by the mother in both samples, Japanese infants' negative expressions are rarely responded by their mothers' positive expressions. 11 month old infants from Japan and the United States participated in procedures designed to produce either anger, fear or surprise. We can thus compare these infants' facial expressions both across cultures and across situations. "Gentle arm restraint" is the procedure for anger. The second procedure is "Growling gorilla head" and is for fear. "Vanishing object" is the procedure for surprise. We found no significant differences between the Japanese and the American babies for any of the emotions in any of the three situations. However, regarding the coping behaviors of the infants in the emotion situations, it can be speculated that the preceding experiences of the infants exert considerable influence on the style of coping they show in the emotion situations.