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Biomedical subjects

R N Emde

Publications and source records attributed to R N Emde.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

The facial expression of anger in seven-month-old infants.

This study concerned whether anger can be observed reliably in facial expressions as early as 7 months of age in a sample of 30 infants. It also assessed the influence of several variables on anger responses: infant's familiarity with the frustrator (mother vs. stranger), repetition of trials, and sex of the child. Correlations were obtained between the expression of anger and cognitive developmental level, maternal perceptions of irascibility (temperament), time since eating or sleeping, and facial flushing. Dependent variables included facial expression components as well as ratings of facial flushing. We found that the capacity to express anger is well developed by 7 months of age: facial patterning was detected reliably in the absence of contextual information, and repeated frustrations increased the amount of anger shown. No significant relationships were found, however, between facial expression of anger and temperament, drive states, or cognitive developmental scores.

Anger↗
PubMed1982

The effect of early extended contact on father-newborn interaction.

Forty-eight middle-class fathers having their first child were divided into three groups: An Experimental Group received a demonstration of physical and behavioral characteristics of their own infants resulting in a doubling of the usual time for interaction during the first two days. A Hospital Group spent the same amount of time viewing a prepared videotape of the same characteristics of a newborn infant who was not theirs. An Office Control Group, without experimental intervention, was recruited to control for effects of demand characteristics of the experimental situation. All three groups attended their infants' one-month well-baby examination where out-come measures were obtained. Analyses of variance showed no differences between groups on demographic or pregnancy variables. Further, 108 analyses of variance for 36 father and infant behaviors scored from videotapes did not reveal significant group differences. It is argued that in addition to amount of early contact and sex of parent, crucial socioeconomic factors need to be considered.

Child Development↗
PubMed1982

The meaning of infant emotional expressions: regularities in caregiving responses in normal and Down's syndrome infants.

In two studies, photographs of facial expressions of normal and Down's syndrome infants were viewed by mothers who recognized discrete emotions and reported regularities in caregiving associated with these emotions. Stimulating interactions were reported more frequently for high intensity expressions than for low intensity expressions. While these regularities held for both groups of infants, high intensity expressions were less frequent in the Down's group. The biological mothers of Down's infants seemingly compensated by reporting more stimulating interventions in response to their infants' low intensity expressions. Mothers who were unfamiliar with both groups of infants did not evidence this compensatory adjustment.

Affect↗
PubMed1980

Mother-infant "bonding": failure to generalize.

Animal studies on the biological basis of mother-to-infant attachment have led to the hyphothesis that human mother-infant contact shortly after delivery may be crucial for the facilitation of such attachment. However, existing data do not clearly substantiate the influence of early contact on human maternal behavior. The present study was designed with procedural and methodological controls which were not always adequate in earlier studies and tested the hypothesis that early and enhanced contact facilitates maternal attachment behavior. 15 healthy primiparous mothers had their infants 1 hour at delivery and 90 min at each feeding; 15 received the usual hospital routine--brief contact at delivery and 30 min at each feeding. No differences in maternal behavior were obtained on 28 discrete response measures or on pooled sets of individual measures. A modest sex effect between contact conditions was found. Maternal behavior did not differ as a function of age. Factors that may account for differences obtained between this and other studies are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Facial patterning and infant emotional expression: happiness, surprise, and fear.

Although recent studies have convincingly demonstrated that emotional expressions can be judged reliably from actor-posed facial displays, there exists little evidence that facial expressions in lifelike settings are similar to actor-posed displays, are reliable across situations designed to elicit the same emotion, or provide sufficient information to mediate consistent emotion judgments by raters. The present study therefore investigated these issues as they related to the emotions of happiness, surprise, and fear. 27 infants between 10 and 12 months of age (when emotion masking is not likely to confound results) were tested in 2 situations designed to elicit hapiness (peek-a-boo game and a collapsing toy), 2 to elicit surprise (a toy-switch and a vanishing-object task), and 2 to elicit fear (the visual cliff and the approach of a stranger. Dependent variables included changes in 28 facial response components taken from previous work using actor poses, as well as judgments of the presence of 6 discrete emotions. In addition, instrumental behaviors were used to verify with other than facial expression responses whether the predicted emotion was elicited. In contrast to previous conclusions on the subject, we found that judges were able to make all facial expression judgments reliably, even in the absence of contextual information. Support was also obtained for at least some degree of specificity of facial component response patterns, especially for happiness and surprise. Emotion judgments by raters were found to be a function of the presence of discrete facial components predicted to be linked to those emotions. Finally, almost all situations elicited blends, rather than discrete emotions.

Emotions↗
PubMed1975

Human wakefulness and biological rhythms after birth.

Both a sleep-wakefulness cycle and a basic rest-activity cycle were observed in 20 normal infants left undisturbed for ten hours following birth. Behavioral wakefulness occurred immediately following delivery and in between sleep periods despite the lack of feeding and other intervention. Medication given to mothers during labor resulted in decreased amounts of infant wakefulness and increased amounts of quiet (non rapid eye movement) sleep.

Animals↗