Temperament, mother-infant interaction, and early emotional development

This article is to feature a few sets of empirical findings from our research that have impact on the field of study on socioemotional development both in Japan and the West. One of these issues is the discovery that Japanese infants show different patterns of attachment behavior in the Strange Situation and an infant's disposition to become irritable can make an important contribution to patterns of attachment behavior. A second set of data concerns the emotional communication between mother and 5-month-old infant. Our findings suggest that the Japanese mothers respond less livelily to their infant's emotional expressions. Thirdly, an interview of the mother concerning her preception of her infant's emotions reveals that Japanese and American mothers differ from each other in the extent to which they emphasize different emotions. Finally, shame, embarrassment, shyness and childrearing practices in Japanese culture are discussed.