Thoman E B, Acebo C, Becker P T
Child Dev. 1983 Jun;54(3):653-9.
Mother-infant interaction was studied using a general systems theory framework. 20 mother-infant pairs were observed in their home for a 7-hour period when the infants were 2, 3, 4, and 5 weeks of age. A measurement procedure was devised to assess, for each pair, the consistency over weeks in their allocation of time to 4 interactional contexts that make up the day: feeding, changing or bathing, social attention, and baby alone. The measure was called an Interactional Stability Score. Construct validity for this measure was investigated based on our hypothesis that high interactional stability would be strongly linked to low levels of crying during social attention. This hypothesis was confirmed. The results are interpreted within a general systems theory perspective--namely, that this measure of interactional stability is an empirical indicator of the degree of equilibrium within the relationship, at the level of patterning of interactional contexts. High stability scores represent consistency in allocation of time to the 4 contexts over weeks and not a rigidity in sequencing of these contexts, and thus appeared to reflect a dynamic process of mutual constraints on the behaviors of both partners.
母婴互动是在一般系统理论框架下进行研究的。研究人员在20对母婴家中进行了观察，观察时间为7小时，观察对象是年龄分别为2周、3周、4周和5周的婴儿。研究设计了一种测量程序，以评估每对母婴在一周内将时间分配到构成一天的4种互动情境中的一致性，这4种情境分别是：喂食、换尿布或洗澡、社交关注以及婴儿独处。该测量指标被称为互动稳定性得分。基于我们的假设，即高互动稳定性与社交关注期间的低哭泣水平密切相关，我们对该测量指标的结构效度进行了研究。这一假设得到了证实。研究结果是从一般系统理论的角度进行解释的，也就是说，这种互动稳定性测量指标是关系中平衡程度的一个实证指标，处于互动情境模式的层面。高稳定性得分代表了几周内将时间分配到这4种情境中的一致性，而不是这些情境顺序上的僵化，因此似乎反映了双方行为相互约束的动态过程。
