Q: What is Social Referencing?
A: Social Referencing is intentionally searching for information about how others feel to help explain the meaning of uncertain circumstances and events. Infants and toddlers use this because they are new to situations and by examining others they can use it as reference as to how they are supposed to respond to a situation.
This occurs around eight to nine months of age and is one of the first sophisticated social abilities that they learn. It can be seen by what facial expressions they make; they will mirror those of a parent despite the situation.
How this works is quite interesting. There are two theories of why this occurs. One is that viewing emotions will then have those emotions and feel those emotions. Second is that the infant will use the reaction as a guide to how they ought to react as well. I believe that it is a mix of both and that overall the infant will probably mirror the emotions at first to stay with the norm and as they grow they might begin to process why they feel that certain way by referencing to others beforehand. …show more content…
By having these abilities, they can differentiate and begin to find meaning in facial and vocal expressions and the meaning that comes with it.
The sequence of events is quite interesting, infants will be able to discriminate vocal expressions before they can with facial expressions. This makes sense due to the limitation of an infant's perceptions. At about six to eight weeks, they can begin to only differentiating the expressions and can begin to respond. At five months, they can discriminate different vocal expressions almost fully. And by one year, they can begin to understand the reason why the expression
A: Social Referencing is intentionally searching for information about how others feel to help explain the meaning of uncertain circumstances and events. Infants and toddlers use this because they are new to situations and by examining others they can use it as reference as to how they are supposed to respond to a situation.
This occurs around eight to nine months of age and is one of the first sophisticated social abilities that they learn. It can be seen by what facial expressions they make; they will mirror those of a parent despite the situation.
How this works is quite interesting. There are two theories of why this occurs. One is that viewing emotions will then have those emotions and feel those emotions. Second is that the infant will use the reaction as a guide to how they ought to react as well. I believe that it is a mix of both and that overall the infant will probably mirror the emotions at first to stay with the norm and as they grow they might begin to process why they feel that certain way by referencing to others beforehand. …show more content…
By having these abilities, they can differentiate and begin to find meaning in facial and vocal expressions and the meaning that comes with it.
The sequence of events is quite interesting, infants will be able to discriminate vocal expressions before they can with facial expressions. This makes sense due to the limitation of an infant's perceptions. At about six to eight weeks, they can begin to only differentiating the expressions and can begin to respond. At five months, they can discriminate different vocal expressions almost fully. And by one year, they can begin to understand the reason why the expression