Maternal affectivity promotes infant socio-cognitive abilities

The studies reviewed so far suggest that young infants are social creatures at birth that have particular expectations about their interactions with caretakers. If these expectations are violated, infants get upset. In the study just discussed in chapter 7, Legerstee and Varghese (2001) revealed that mothers who produced high levels of affective attunement (HAM group) had infants who smiled, vocalized, and gazed longer at them than infants of mothers who were less sensitive. These HAM infants distinguished between video-taped natural interactions and replays of these interactions, regardless of the order in which the natural and replay conditions were presented. Infants of low ranking affective mothers (LAM group) also discriminated between the natural and replay conditions, in that they reduced their smiles and gazes during replay. However, if the “replay” versions were presented before the natural interactions, infants got so upset that they did not recuperate during the subsequent natural interactions with their mothers. Thus, infants in the HAM group did not become disturbed if the interaction with their mothers was somewhat “off.” They happily adjusted their communicative attempts when mothers resumed natural interactions. In contrast, infants of less sensitive mothers lacked such efficacy or resilience. The lack of responsiveness of their mothers was so unsettling to these babies that they remained disturbed during subsequent natural interactions.