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Social referencing

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Social referencing relates to the process during which infants (from approx. eight to twelve months on) use affective displays (in particular facial expressions) of an adult to regulate their behavior towards environmental objects, persons and situations, in unfamiliar situations.[1][2] The infant or toddler follows the caregiver´s model as how to assess the situationor object generating uncertainty.[3][4] Mostly, the face-to-face interaction between caregiver (often mother) and infant is scientifically examined, as in the best known study about social referencing called "the visual cliff experiment", conducted by Eleanor J. Gibson and Richard D. Walk.[5]

Social Referencing is considered an important component of the emotional development of children, as the child learns to appraise the situation and context by orientating on the caregiver's behavior and emotions.[6] It is associated with separation anxiety and is said to be crucial for the child's subsequent assessment of emotional responses.[7]

Social Referencing is often viewed as the precursor of the theory of mind, which describes the capability to assume processes of consciousness such as thoughts, expectations, attitudes, and feelings. By comparing emotional responses with the context, the child proves to be aware of intentions others have.[8]

History

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For many years it had been known that the learning of behaviour in social situations is influenced by observing how others behave in social settings. In 1952, a lot of empirical work has been done by Asch with adults.[9]

In the first social referencing studies, the aim was to understand in which ways infants use emotional signals of others to control their own behavior.[10] In 1981, Campos and Stenberg suggested that the mother plays an important role in social referencing. The term 'maternal referencing' was used in this context.[11]

In 1982, Feinman proposed that social referencing needs both active and passive acquiring of information. Campos (1983) suggested that social referencing means searching for an emotional guideline in social settings that are not understood.[9] In 1983, Feinman and Lewis conducted an experiment in which they found out that infants are less friendly to people when their mothers show a negative facial expression.[9]

In order to understand social referencing in infants more in detail Klinnert (1984) used a novel toy procedure in his studies. In the study, they let the infant play in a laboratory room with a woman, when suddenly a novel toy appeared. Klinnert (1984) found out that infants who were influenced by a positive reaction towards the new toy, themselves approached the novel toy more positively. Whereas, when the women in the laboratory reacted negatively to the novel toy, the infant tended to avoid the new toy.[10] On the other hand, in a likewise study conducted by Zarbatany and Lamb (1985), they did not find significant differences in the fear condition and the happy condition.[12] Additionally, Mumme (1996) did also not find anticipated behaviour adjustment of infants after observing different maternal facial expressions.[13]

In 1985, Sorce et al. conducted one of the most well known experiments in the history of developmental psychology: The visual cliff experiment. In this study, the infant was confronted with an apparent 12-inch drop-off (made out of glass). When the infants reached the edge of the cliff, their decision to cross the edge depended on the facial expression of their mother. From 19 infants, 14 crossed the cliff when their mother expressed a happy face. Whereas, none of the 17 infants crossed when their mother expressed fear in their faces. Sorce et al. concluded that various facial expression can influence the behavior of infants.[14] In 1987, Hornik et al. conducted novel- toy studies in which not only the behavioral responses to facial expression was measured but furthermore facial expressions, as well as other signals such as sound and touching, were presented at the same time to the infant. The behavioral response of the 1 year old infants was significant.[15] In addition, more studies were conducted in which female caretakers expressed vocal and facial emotion towards their infants. These multimodal-signal studies seem to be more consistent in predicting the behavior of infants, then, for instance, the novel- toy studies with facial expressions only.[16][17]

Empirical investigation

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Empirical investigations of social referencing for scientific purposes is commonly done in a laboratory setting. In order to control the environment and to minimize distracting stimuli.[18] In this setting, an ambiguous situation is produced that requires the child to engage social referencing since it is not able to judge the situation by its self correctly. Following the ambiguous stimulus should cause the child to look to an adult or peer for the appropriate reaction.[19] In order to engage in social referencing, the child needs to have self-awareness of its limits of not being able to judge the situation fully and that someone else might know the right response.[18]

The Visual cliff experiment

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The child is looking towards the mother for guidance to navigate the ambiguous situation of the visual cliff

Psychologists Gibson and Walk (1960) developed a visual cliff test to measure depth in human infants and animals. To do this, they recreated an artificial cliff face using plexiglass. The glass was raised off the floor; one half of the glass wallpaper was put straight underneath; this was the ‘shallow side’. On the deep side, the wallpaper was put on the floor thus creating the illusion of a cliff or sharp drop off point. After success for rats, a larger one was made for infants allowing multiple experiments in depth perception as well as social referencing.[20]

As well as studying depth one can also use the visual cliff experiment to study other behaviours like social referencing. In 1960 the original experiment took place.[21] During the experiment as well as their discoveries on depth, it was also made clear that the mothers facial expressions were a signal to the baby on how safe it was. Supportive, happy facial expressions meant the baby was more likely to cross. If the mothers facial expression was sad or angry, the babies became much more anxious and alarmed.[22] Research was conducted on whether babies showed different social referencing behaviours in reaction to mothers or fathers. Interestingly the, whether it was the babies mother or father, did not have a significant effect on the infants level of anxiety.[23] Research has shown with encouragement from parents’ infants will cross a ‘visual cliff’ which without the encouragement and social referencing framework, they would not cross. Meaning infants look to external cues for how to act in particular situations. This is supported by the fact if negative facial expressions were shown, the infants would show more anxiety and not cross the visual cliff set up by the experimenters.

Ambiguous toy and stranger paradigm

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In the ambiguous toy paradigm, the toy robot causes the child to engage in social referencing.

The ambiguous toy paradigm is one of the most commonly used experiment. Due to its low cost and it's wide applicability.[18][19] The ambiguous toy paradigm can be used in infants after the age of 9 months to make inferences about their development.[19] In order to conduct the experiment, the primary caregiver (most commonly the mother) and the infant will be invited to a room with toys, and the child gets to play with the toys. After the child is used to an unusual situation, a new toy (the ambiguous toy) is presented somewhere in the room.[24] The ambiguous toy usually is an animate toy that can produce sound and move (like a toy robot or a locomotive).[17] The mother then tries to convey (either by looks or by talking to the infant with beforehand trained facial expressions or script), emotions to the child (such as fear, happiness, interest, anger, etc.).[19] During this procedure, the child is carefully observed through a mirrored window. When the child has already developed social referencing skills, it will look at her for guidance and act most commonly in accordance with her response, either with caution or with curiosity.[25]

The stranger paradigm is a different version of the ambiguous toy paradigm. Here instead of a novel toy, a stranger or an animal enters the room and starts to interact with the mother and the infant.[18] The child then looks for guidance to the mother to know if the stranger or animal is trustworthy/ friendly or not.[17]

Non-humans

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Social referencing has been shown in multiple animal species when a human acts as a caregiver and informant. Animals can refer back to the informant to obtain emotional messages about behaviour as well as novel objects.[26]

The process of referencing differs between species. However, research shows that there are striking similarities between chimpanzees and human infants.[27] Similarities include referential looking towards the caregiver, followed by the adaption of behaviour towards a novel object, which underlines the importance of social referencing for infants and primates. One of the main differences accentuates uncertainty in chimpanzees, which results in more frequent looking rate at the caregiver.[27] The chimpanzee either approaches a novel object and then references emotions from the caregiver or vice versa. Whereas human infants may embark in a situation solely on their own emotions without referencing.[27]

Since the domestication of cats and dogs, the living environments thus have overlapped considerably with the ones of humans. Research in social referencing in cats show species specific behaviour overrule the signal from the owner.[28] Cats show a low interaction when the familiar caregiver shows positive emotions. Whereas the interaction increases as their caregiver displays negative emotions.[28] The cat is referencing emotions in order to seek security resulting in a species typical behaviour called Fight-or-flight response. Cats are not synchronising their emotions and behaviours while referencing their owners, such as dogs and infants do.[28]

Dogs, on the other hand, synchronise and monitor their behaviour regardless of the relationship to the informant.[29]

A study conducted in horses showed similar results to those found in cats, indicating a heightened state of arousal when negative emotions were being exhibited. The study also revealed differences in behaviour across various breed types.[30]

Deficits

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Autism

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Children display social referencing skills during the period of 9-12 months in normal development. Unfortunately, individuals with autism have trouble approaching social referencing (Feinman, 1982; Klinnert, Campos, Sorce, Emde, & Svejda, 1983; Moor & Corkum, 1994).[31][6][8] Sigman, Arbelle, & Dissanayake (1995) suggested that social referencing is absent from autistic children.[32] Bacon et al. (1998) reported that preschoolers with autism were less likely to employ social referencing. In the presence of ambiguous and unfamiliar stimuli, these autistic children did not attempt to seek for the information from adults.[33] Another study that investigated 18-month-old siblings of children with autism indicated that deficit in social referencing may be considered as an early signal to predict autism (Cornew et al., 2012). In the experiment, Cornew found that autistic infants took longer time to start seeking for vocalization and facial expression than their siblings without autism and typical developing children. In addition, infants whose siblings developed autism did not advance emotional information from adults to regulate their behaviors regardless of later autism diagnosis. It suggested that this impairment of social referencing may represent an endophenotype for autism disorder.[34]

However, many studies which used behavioral procedures to teach social referencing skills to autistic children suggested that individuals with autism can attain some social referencing skills after training (Gena, Krantz, McClannahan, and Poulson, 1996). In the study about training and generalization of affective behavior, adolescents with autism received treatment, including modeling, verbal prompting, and reinforcement. After the training, contextually appropriate affective responding increased, and treatment effects were generalized across untrained scenarios, therapists, time, and settings.[35] In another study by Buffington, Krantz, McClannahan, and Poulson (1998), four autistic children were taught to use contextually appropriate gestures across three response categories: attention directing/getting behavior, affective behavior, and descriptive behavior. After participating in the study, children can respond in novel settings, show more socially appropriate behavior, and have the same social interaction as their peers did.[36]

Moreover, although children with autism may suffer deficit in development of social referencing, some studies show that they possibly develop social referencing skills later in life. In other words, autistic children achieve social skills later than typical developing children. Warreyn et al. (2005) conducted a study to examine social referencing in autistic children from 3 to 6 years old; these children did not show social referencing deficit. Nevertheless, compared to typically developing children, individuals with autism experienced a delay in social communicative development because 5-year-old children without autism did not show social referencing in the experimental tasks. An explanation is that the children with autism may function on the level of younger children. This study also suggests that future research should approach social referencing in younger children to clarify the delay in social communicative development of autistic children.[37]

Down Syndrome and Williams Syndrome

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The socially guided form of learning, referred to as social referencing, is critical for the development of children’s understanding of other people and their environment. Research by John (2011) indicates that the onset of the social referencing process is delayed in children with developmental delays or neurodevelopmental disorders such as Down Syndrome or Williams Syndrome.[38]

For children with Down Syndrome, it is particularly difficult to comprehend visual, auditory, and other sensory information at a high speed. They also display slow reaction times and a low degree of spontaneous activity, increasing the need for extra encouragement when learning or exploring.[39] Research by Knieps et al. (1994) reports that children with developmental delays do not show evidence of using social referencing to regulate their behavior. Although these children look at their parents in situations that ordinarily elicit social referencing, affective parental communications about ambiguous events did not influence their behavior.[40] In their study, Knieps et al. (1994) observed that infants with Down Syndrome did not match their parents positive expressions and expressed affect opposite to their parent's fearful expression. The affective expressions of infants with Down Syndrome were influenced by parental affect; however, the expressions were incongruent.[40] They express more positivity than negativity following a fearful message provided by the referent.[40] This supports the suggestion that children with Down Syndrome have specific deficits in the capacity to process emotional information.[41]

Individuals with Williams Syndrome typically demonstrate an overly friendly, affectionate, and socially disinhibited personality.[42] Furthermore, they also exhibit a short attention span, extra sensitivity to sounds, and anxiety, - especially about upcoming events.[43] Toddlers with Williams Syndrome show atypically focused attention to an experimenters face during cognitive tasks.[42] In a study by John (2011), children with Williams Syndrome were unable to locate an intended target even when a communicative eye-gaze gesture was added. They follow an adult's pointing gesture less often than typically developed children.[38] Individuals with WS also evidence difficulty matching and labeling emotional expressions. They are significantly less accurate at identifying both facial and vocal expressions of fear.[38] Their findings provide the indication that children with Williams Syndrome have difficulty comprehending the communicative significance of another person's fearful reactions. They would approach a stimulus in the social referencing task and formed a positive opinion of it, despite the experimenter's fearful response.[38]

References

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  31. ^ Feinman, Saul, ed. (1992). Social Referencing and the Social Construction of Reality in Infancy. Boston, MA: Springer US. doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-2462-9. ISBN 978-1-4899-2464-3.
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  33. ^ Bacon, Alyson L.; Fein, Deborah; Morris, Robin; Waterhouse, Lynn; Allen, Doris (1998). "The Responses of Autistic Children to the Distress of Others". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 28 (2): 129–142. doi:10.1023/a:1026040615628. ISSN 0162-3257.
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  36. ^ Buffington, Dawn M.; Krantz, Patricia J.; McClannahan, Lynn E.; Poulson, Claire L. (1998). "Procedures for Teaching Appropriate Gestural Communication Skills to Children with Autism". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 28 (6): 535–545. doi:10.1023/a:1026056229214. ISSN 0162-3257.
  37. ^ Warreyn, Petra; Roeyers, Herbert; de Groote, Isabel (2005-10). "Early social communicative behaviours of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder during interaction with their mothers". Autism. 9 (4): 342–361. doi:10.1177/1362361305056076. ISSN 1362-3613. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. ^ a b c d Thurman, Angela John; Mervis, Carolyn B. (2013-02-13). "The regulatory function of social referencing in preschoolers with Down syndrome or Williams syndrome". Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. 5 (1): 2. doi:10.1186/1866-1955-5-2. ISSN 1866-1955. PMC 3579739. PMID 23406787.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC format (link) CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
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  41. ^ Weeks, Daniel J.; Chua, Romeo; Elliott, Digby (2000). Perceptual-motor Behavior in Down Syndrome. Human Kinetics. ISBN 978-0-88011-975-7.
  42. ^ a b Järvinen, Anna; Korenberg, Julie R.; Bellugi, Ursula (2013-6). "The Social Phenotype of Williams Syndrome". Current opinion in neurobiology. 23 (3): 414–422. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2012.12.006. ISSN 0959-4388. PMC 4326252. PMID 23332975. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  43. ^ "Information For Teachers". Williams Syndrome Association. 2010-01-26. Retrieved 2020-05-13.

Category:Developmental psychology

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