Abstract
The study of infants’ social relations has focused primarily on dyadic interaction. Early research concentrated on the mother—infant and the stranger—infant dyads. During the past decade, the view of infants’ social network has expanded to include relationships with fathers, infant peers, substitute caregivers, siblings, and grandparents. There has been increasing concern in the last few years about extradyadic social forces, as evidenced by research on second-order and indirect effects, and by consideration of the infant as a member of a family system (Belsky, 1981; Lewis & Rosenblum, 1979; Lewis & Weinraub, 1976; Pedersen, Anderson, & Cain, 1980). Nevertheless, in comparison with research on social relations in adults and older children, the study of infant sociability remains dominated by a dyadic focus. This chapter considers the various ways in which social connections beyond the dyad affect the infant.
Preparation of this paper and the collection and analysis of some of the social referencing data reported in it were supported by NIMH National Research Service Award IF32MH07625-01, NIMH Grant 1RO3MH35384-O1A1, and a Basic Research Grant from the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Wyoming to the first author. The second author was supported by BEH Grant 300-77-0307.
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Feinman, S., Lewis, M. (1984). Is There Social Life beyond the Dyad?. In: Lewis, M. (eds) Beyond The Dyad. Genesis of Behavior, vol 4. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9415-1_2
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