THE EFFECT OF CONTEXT ON MOTHER-CHILD INTERACTION.
Item
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Title
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THE EFFECT OF CONTEXT ON MOTHER-CHILD INTERACTION.
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Identifier
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AAI8112358
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identifier
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8112358
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Creator
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GRAVES, ZOE ROXANNE.
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Contributor
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Joseph Glick
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Date
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1981
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Developmental
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Abstract
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Much of the literature on language acquisition and mother-child interaction has been based on the observation of so-called "naturalistic" behaviors. Samples of behavior are usually collected by an observer with a video or tape recorder, and it is generally assumed that what is being captured is a representative sample of "typical behaviors". The observer and his equipment are considered a neutral "third eye" to which subjects have become accustomed.;The possible effect of the observer's presence on the nature of mother-child interaction was the focus of the present study. It was hypothesized that the presence of the investigator defined a formal context in which particular behaviors might be displayed for the benefit of the observer. Interactions of ten white middle-class and ten white lower-class mothers, and their two-year-old children were videotaped under two conditions: (1) when subjects were aware of the observation, and (2) when they were not aware of being observed. Analyses of variance were conducted comparing dyads both across observed/unobserved condition and across socioeconomic group.;Striking differences were found across the observed/unobserved condition. When aware of being observed, there were significant increases in such behaviors as maternal speech production, gesturing, initiation of and response to interactional game sequences.;For middle-class mothers, the change in behavior across contexts was generally more pronounced than it was for the lower-class dyads, and appeared to constitute an attempt at aiding the child in processing and responding. These mothers displayed behaviors for the investigator's benefit showing them to be "good" teachers and active participants in interactions with alert children. In contrast, when aware of the observer's presence, they were frequently inattentive and much less often engaged with their children.;Lower and middle-class dyads were more similar in the unobserved condition than in the observed. Changes across conditions were less marked for lower than middle-class pairs, and differed somewhat in form. Lower-class mothers placed less emphasis on displaying lively mother-child interaction. Speaking, playing alone or displaying ritualized knowledge (i.e. saying the alphabet or counting) seemed to satisfy lower-class mothers' expectations for an adequate child performance in the observed condition. Though at age two, children's behaviors were remarkably similar across condition and SES, at a later age, after social conventions for performance are integrated by the child, he may encounter a match or mis-match between his own and the conventional displays expected by others in formal contexts like the traditional classroom. Differences in performance expectations and the interactional repertoires practiced by the children may effect their subsequent evaluation in a system which is generally not sensitive to what is considered appropriate to a particular context by members of various socio-cultural groups.;This study also raises questions about the accuracy of the traditional interactional literature, which assumes representativeness of data across contexts. Since mothers and children change their behavior when the interpersonal context changes, measures obtained with an observer present may be representative only of a subset of behaviors geared for the particular viewing audience. It is not that the unobserved condition reflects "naturalistic" behavior in contrast to "un-naturalistic" behavior in the observed condition, but rather that human life is richly textured and mothers and children are involved in numerous contexts in the course of a day. Behaviors are likely to be adjusted according to a sense of what is appropriate to those settings. A broad, culturally-relative perspective would be useful in looking at aspects of language-learning and mother-child interaction.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
