Arnold J. Sameroff

Transactional Models in Early Social Relations.

Predictions of developmental outcomes based on early assessments of the child have proven inadequate. Development consists of a series of stage-like restructurings of behavior as the child advances through life. Continuities in exceptional behavior generally do not bridge these stages unless those exceptional behaviors are maintained by an exceptional caretaking environment. Such exceptional caretaking can be related to a mother’s cognitive inability to make developmental sense of the behavior of her child. A sequence of negative transactions can be started when an infant is seen as being abnormal either through his history, appearance, or behavior. The parent who makes this concrete attribution will treat the child in such a way as to create a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’. Research must be directed at the variety of ways that parental levels of cognizing influence their perceptions of their offspring, which perceptions in turn influence their behavior toward their offspring. Dialectical interpretations offer a new tool for understanding the contradictions that motivate cognitive change.

BIRTH OUTCOMES IN THE OFFSPRING OF MENTALLY DISORDERED WOMEN

The course of pregnancy and birth were studied among schizophrenic, neurotic depressive, and personality-disordered women, compared to a normal control group. The lighter birthweight of schizophrenic womens offspring was found more strongly related to the severity and chronicity of their mental illness than to the diagnosis itself. Children of neurotic depressive women had lower APGAR scores and more fetal deaths.

Childbirth education, maternal attitudes, and delivery

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a childbirth education program (patterned after the Lamaze procedure) on maternal attitudes and the delivery process. Dependent variables included axniety as measured by the anxiety scale of the IPAT, scores on the Maternal Attitudes to Pregnancy Inventory (MAPI), the duration of labor, and the amounts of premedication and anesthesia administered during delivery. Three groups of pregnant women were used as subjects: 70 primiparous and 48 multiparous women taking a 6 week childbirth education course and 41 multiparous women delivery at the same hospitals but not taking the course. In addition the data on labor duration and amount of medication administered to 1,400 multiparous and 1,015 primiparous patients delivery at one of the same hospitals as the other three groups were examined for comparison purposes. No differences were found between groups on the anxiety measure or on duration of labor. Some differences favoring women who had the childbirth education course were found on the MAPI and the medication and anesthesia measures. It was concluded that the childbirth education course had some beneficial effects.

Learning and Adaptation in Infancy: A Comparison of Models

Publisher Summary Infant and especially newborn behavior represents only one point on a continuum of behavioral organization, anchored at one end in the initial biological activity of the single germ cell and leading to the group activity found in social organizations. The individuals life itself is only one point in the broader scale of evolution. The overriding principle that regulates functioning in both the individual and the species is adaptation to its environment. Understanding any specific process, such as learning, cannot be successful if the broader context is ignored. This chapter reviews the research on learning in early infancy and makes a contrast between those studies that have proven successful and those that have led to questionable findings. An infants ability to perform separate components of the conditioning process is discussed, with special attention to stimulus variables. A theoretical position is developed, which places infant behavior in the broader context of the adaptation of living systems to their respective environments.

Monitoring system for infant movement, vocalization, and nurse interaction

An instrument which monitors and records certain behaviors of the neonate is described. By means of an air-inflated mattress and pressure transducer, the instrument measures whole-body movement. By means of a crib-located microphone, the device measures vocalizations. In addition, the presence and activity of nurse or observer are also monitored and recorded as part of the complete record. Except for the mattress and transducers, the monitor is completely self-contained, even including in its 8½-in.-high x 19-in.-wide size a 10-channel event recorder.

Changes in the nonnutritive sucking response to stimulation during infancy

Abstract Nonnutritive sucking response change to auditory stimulation was studied in 1-, 2-, and 3-month-old infants. Each of 22 Ss was stimulated with five stimuli, presented four times during three sessions at 24-hour intervals. The 1- and 2-month-old Ss were tested again 1 month later for another three sessions. The response of younger infants was ambiguous. The response of older infants showed reliable shortening of sucking burst and lengthening of sucking interval. Neither differential effects of the stimuli nor habituation of response were found.

The Consequences of Prematurity: Understanding and Therapy

The birth of an infant before the completion of the normal 40-week gestational period has been postulated to represent a perinatal trauma with detrimental effects upon the health of both the infant and its mother, and upon their social interaction as well. There has been a long history of concern with the intellectual consequences of prematurity. In more recent times, additional concerns have been raised by studies finding that prematurely born children are more frequently abused by their parents than other children (Klein and Stern, 1971). As our understanding of the processes of psychological development has advanced, we have been better able to appreciate the social context for both of these consequences of premature birth and to begin programs for the alteration of both the intellectual and social deficits associated with prematurity.

Racial and social class differences in newborn heart rate

Heart rates of 256 newborn infants were measured on the second day of life. Black babies were found to have much higher heart rates than white babies. When socioeconomic status was taken into account no heart rate differences were found between black and white babies in the poorest social class. Neither the emotional health of the mothers nor the physical health of the mothers or infants was related to newborn heart rate levels. Several hypotheses are suggested to explain these differences.