ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on ideas about how infants can affect parents. The very young infant moves back and forth between bouts of pain and avoidance of pain or discomfort to states of quiescence in which the external world is sealed off. The proximal–distal shift involves the general emphasis in the infant’s responsiveness, subcortical versus cortical maturity, and, in general, the way in which the infant uses the external world. The mother and infant have been in physiological interaction during the entire process of pregnancy and even in a limited behavioral interaction consisting of responding to the movements of each other. Socialization that develops out of caregiving should primarily be a result of drive reduction. Socialization that emerges from social interaction involves learning at moderate levels of arousal. The time of appearance of the social smile in most infants and the emergence of reactions to strangers at seven months also confirms the utility of delineating these periods.
