Divergent perspectives, multiple meanings: A comparison of caregivers' and observers' interpretations of infant behaviour

A growing body of research has pointed to the importance of examining the signalling function of infant expressions for caregivers. Three experiments are reported which examine the divergence in perspective between external observers' and mothers' perceptions of infant facial expressions. Experiment 1 examined the relationship between mothers' and observers' criteria for the identification of meaningful infant expressions. Both mothers and observers inferred emotion states from infant facial expression. It was found that mothers perceived more meaningful infant acts than observers did. In Experiment 2 the differing interpretations of the babies' expressions were restricted by providing observers with the mothers' criteria for what were meaningful infant acts. Results revealed differences in the interpretation of intersubjective meanings. Experiment 3 examined the relationship between mothers' attributions of emotional states and their infants' corresponding emotional expressions. The infants' expressions were coded using MAX. Mothers' interpretations of their babies' facial expressions and the inferred emotion states were influenced by situational context. The implications of these results for a social theory of emotional development are discussed.