A study explored whether socioeconomic status (SES) differences could be detected in 3-month-old infants' differential vocal responsiveness (DVR) to mothers versus strangers. The study also explored whether 3-month-olds' DVR was related to environmental variables, such as the mother's behaviors toward the infant in naturalistic conditions, the…

Differences in 3-month-old infants' vocal responsiveness to vocal-visual stimulation by mothers and strangers has been shown to be related to performance on both the Stanford-Binet at 3 years of age and the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistics at 5 years of age. The present retesting of 12 of the original 14 normal, first-born male subjects, now 12…

The ability of infants to recognize their mothers as distinct from others was investigated by presenting 6 boys and 6 girls at two age levels (5 weeks and 13 weeks) with the following six sequential stimulus conditions: (1) mother's face (MO); (2) stranger's face (SO); (3) mother's face with stranger's voice (MS); (4) stranger's face with mother's…

This paper reports an 18-month investigation of the differential effects of social context (i.e., characteristics of people in the child's immediate environment) on infants' positive social behavior. The social behaviors of 14 children from 1 to 2-1/2 years of age were observed at home and in a laboratory playroom. The social context was varied…

This study investigated at the age at which infants become able to discriminate between their mothers and females strangers, as measured by differential patterns of pauses during the infants' crying while being spoken to by their mothers and female strangers. The subjects, 14 infants ranging in age from 7 to 20 days, were fed, burped, and changed,…

The relation between maternal alcohol consumption and infant attachment behavior at one year of age was investigated in this study. Alcohol consumption was estimated by self-report questionnaires filled out by mothers who were over 30 years of age. The questionnaire elicited information about the amount of alcohol mothers consumed prior to,…

To test the cross-cultural validity of uncertainty reduction theory, a study was conducted using students from South Korea and the United States who were chosen to represent high- and low-context cultures respectively. Uncertainty reduction theory is based upon the assumption that the primary concern of strangers upon meeting is one of uncertainty…

This study compared the social behaviors of daycare-attending and home-reared children in a novel social setting with both an unfamiliar peer and adult. Subjects were 24 children 26 months of age, each accompanied by a familiar caretaker. Twelve children (5 girls and 7 boys) were a randomly drawn sample of the general population recruited from…

This study examined techniques which facilitate children's separation from their mothers and their move into a novel situation. Subjects were 32 male and 32 female 40- to 48-month-old children. Some children were visited in their homes the night before the experiment. Subjects remained with their mothers in a waiting room for 10 minutes. A…

This two-part investigation attempted to formulate culturally sensitive definitions of desirable and undesirable attachment behavior. Participants were 3 sociocultural groups of 16 mothers each: middle-class Anglo mothers, lower-class Anglo mothers, and lower-class Puerto Rican mothers living on the U.S. mainland. All mothers had at least 1 child…

This study attempted to systematically explore the range of variation in social response in 17 subjects (ages 5 to 15) with infantile autism. To collect observational data on social initiations, social responses, social monitoring with eye contact, and responses to specific types of social events, subjects were observed during free play in their…

This study investigates the effects of age and prior experience with age-mates on attachment behavior and exploratory play with another child. Twenty home-reared children, half between 18 and 24 months and half between 24 and 30 months, and 20 day care children, also equally divided into the two age groups, were observed in the Ainsworth strange…

Papers and discussants' comments from a symposium on issues concerning infants' reactions to strangers are presented. Researchers agreed that there is a developmental shift in infant behavior at 7 to 9 months of age when the infant becomes more cautious in approaching strangers. However, investigators hypothesize that the presence of the mother,…

This study investigated infant crying as a form of communication, with fear considered only one of many possible motivating emotions. Crying, along with fretting and withdrawal, are the major ways infants have to indicate that they desire to change the present situation. Subjects were 91 white, middle class infants whose mothers wete their primary…

In international business education, there has been a general acceptance of the need for a curriculum integrating humanities and business education, since international business, operating within a world environment, requires an understanding of disciplines such as law, geography, psychology, and sociology in addition to functional business areas…