Smiling during later infancy: Relationships among facial expressions, contexts, and other communicative behaviors
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore infant smiling during mother-infant interaction, especially the relationships among facial expressions and contexts of smiling, and with other communicative behaviors. The variables used were mouth positions, contexts of smiling, other facial expressions of smiling, gaze direction, and vocalization. Qualitative and quantitative descriptions of the data were used to present results. This was a longitudinal study, examining infants from 10 to 17 months of age. Eleven mother-infant dyads (seven infant males and four females) were subjects in this study. The dyads were videotaped every week for 10 minutes when the infants were 40 to 51 weeks old, and every other week after 51 weeks old. The mothers were instructed to play with toys as if they were playing with the infants at home. All of the infants were born healthy and were members of middle class families. The variables used for this study were Contexts of Smile (25 original and 7 combined contexts), Mouth Position X (SHORT-CLOSED, SHORT-OPENED, LONG-CLOSED, and LONG-OPENED), Other Facial Movements (EYE, NOSE, and LIP), Gaze (GAZE AT MOTHER, GAZE AT OBJECT), and Vocalization (VOCAL, NO-VOCAL, and LAUGH). A total of 2517 smiles were identified from 206 observations (each observation lasted 10 minutes). These smiles represent 7% of the total sessions' time, with an average frequency of 12 smiles per observation. Eight out of 11 infants showed no significant pattern between the frequency of smiling and age. This indicates a weak relationship between age and the presence of infant smiling. Smiling occurred in diverse contexts regardless of maternal involvement, implying that smiling occurred in both social and non-social contexts. In conclusion, the results of the study demonstrated that different types of smiling occur in different contexts that interact with infant's gaze direction and vocalization. In addition, this relationship changed, depending on the individual subjects. Finally, this study identified strengths and weaknesses in its design, and suggested further investigation into characteristics of subjects, coding, analyzing and interpreting data.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Fogel, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology|Developmental psychology|Social psychology
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.