A Critical Review of Social Referencing in Infancy

Abstract

One of the most common things that human beings do is gather information about the environment, and then utilize that information in formulating interpretation and action. In this information and action process, once the individual has become interested in some environmental event, she then becomes receptive to information about that event and pays attention to it when it is provided. Finally, this input is incorporated into the individual’s understanding of the environmental event, and is the basis upon which action is founded (Feinman, 1986). This general sequence of informational receipt, reality construction, and action is what occurs when an infant first meets (face to face sometimes) the new puppy that mom and dad have brought home, when a teenager goes out on a blind date, and when an adult travels to a foreign country.