Affect development and its assessment in infancy

Affects are defined as both biobehavioral states and signals of social and intrapsychic communication. Discrete (differentiated) affects can reliably be identified, and their intensities scored, from at least three months of age on. Until recently, no comprehensive quantitative methods have been available for the assessment of discrete affects in clinical settings. Two such methods are reviewed. The clinical application of the Michigan Infant Affect Scales (MIAS) is illustrated. Affects are thought to play a central role in organizing, regulating, and motivating the infant's behaviors and social object relationships. A concept of “affective system” is proposed that integrates the modalities of affect expression and the mechanisms of affect regulation. Within this conceptualization, attachment behaviors are seen as part of the expression and/or regulation of affect states during social interactions.

Affect (linguistics) · Affect regulation · Attachment theory · Cognitive psychology · Conceptualization · Developmental psychology · Expression (computer science) · Modalities · Object (grammar) · Sociology · Artificial Intelligence · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Communication · Computer Science · Infant Health and Development · Psychology

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