State as an infant‐environment interaction: an analysis of mother‐infant behavior as a function of sex1

TLDR: Sarett and Wilson as mentioned in this paper defined state as a generalized drive state providing, for example, the intensity dimension of the emotions, the alertness factor in intelli gence, and the general level of reactivity to stimulation.

Abstract: State is one of those psychological constructs which is widely used, carries meaning for commerce, and yet, when carefully con sidered, is rather difficult to define. It is clearly an important charac teristic of human behavior and is probably one of the more important variables distinguishing the living from the inanimate, such as ma chines. Yet, its definition is most difficult and soon gives way to sim ple taxonomy. State is usually considered, first of all, as a continuum of be havior, reflecting some underlying condition. This condition is usually defined along either an arousal continuum or a consciousness con tinuum. In contemporary psychology the notion of consciousness— as the entire issue of phenomenology—has been neglected, so most investigations deal with state in terms of arousal. Duffy's (1962) de finition of arousal demonstrates the breadth of this concept. It is conceived as a generalized drive state providing, for example, the intensity dimension of the emotions, the alertness factor in intelli gence, and the general level of reactivity to stimulation—a rather inclusive dimension. The consciousness continuum is less well de fined, but has within it the notion of awareness—either internal or external (see Hilgard, 1969). Given that state is usually defined as an arousal continuum, it would be easy to define state explicitly as some continuum in a speci fic behavioral area of choosing that continuum as a function of the model of behavior we wish to employ. Thus, if one were talking about brain function, one would discuss state (and state changes) in terms of EEG or REM behavior during various levels of sleep. Construction of autonomic nervous system models would describe state in terms of heart rate level, while activity models would measure movement, smiling, and sucking changes. Attention could be considered a state 1This research is supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant #GB-8590. and an Early Childhood Research Council Grant. Recognition is to be given to Pamela Sarett and Yvonne Watson for data collection, and to Cornelia Wilson for data analysis. * Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey 08540.