Social Referencing in Infants: A Review of Historical and Current Research

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Social referencing, according to Bernstein, Penner, Clarke-Stewart, and Roy (2008), occurs in ambiguous social situations when cues are taken from other people to determine appropriate actions. This processes is important in the lives of developing and growing infants, as they are continuously confronted with new and strange situations in their new worlds. These infants often gain information about these situations from their primary care giver, historically the mother. This paper will provide a summary of research relating to social referencing in infants. The foundational work of Saul Feinman will be reviewed. Current research looking at how depression affects social referencing and how fathers are looked to for social cues will also be presented.

Feinman: Social Referencing in Infancy
Feinman (1982) was one of the first psychologists to detail this phenomenon and in regards to infants. Beginning with a brief overview, he claimed that “social referencing is the hallmark of many psychological theories,” and he cited social comparison, affiliation, conformity, obedience, and modeling as examples (Feinman, 1982, p. 445). Previous research which touched on social referencing was summarized; some research was designed for this purpose, however, much of the cited research investigated other issues, but social referencing was nevertheless observed. Several characteristics of social referencing were listed. First, social referencing was noted to “occur when the individual does not respond directly to stimuli, but converts the sensation into meaning, and reacts on the basis of such interpretation” (Feinman, 1982, p. 446). Secondly, it was stated that an individual’s perception is influenced by others. Third, Feinman (1982) obs...

... middle of paper ...

...rience deficits in socially referred information. It will likely remain a “hallmark” in future theories and developments in psychology.

References
Bernstein, D.A., Penner, L.A., Clarke-Stewart, A., & Roy E.J. (2008). Psychology (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Feinman, S. (1982). Social referencing in infancy. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly: Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28(4), 445-470.
Möller, E. L., Majdandžić, M., Vriends, N., & Bögels, S. M. (2013). Social referencing and child anxiety: The evolutionary based role of fathers’ versus mothers’ signals. Journal of Child and Family Studies, doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9787-1
Pelaez, M., Virues-Ortega, J., Field, T. M., Amir-Kiaei, Y., & Schnerch, G. (2013). Social referencing in infants of mothers with symptoms of depression. Infant Behavior and Development, 36(4), 548-556. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2013.05.003

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