Maternal psychology
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Maternal psychology
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[ID] => 559770
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[post_date] => 2025-01-03 10:06:00
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-01-03 15:06:00
[post_content] => Practice Passage (Question 1-6)
*This passage is the property of Khan Academy and has been reformatted into an AAMC-style interface in their entirety by MedLife Mastery. MedLife Mastery does not endorse and is not an affiliate of Khan Academy.
From the very first stage of the postpartum period, infants show various emotional expressions such as crying and smiling, and their caregivers typically respond sensitively and automatically to these expressions. Many studies have investigated maternal physical and mental responses toward infants’ emotional expressions. For example, distress cries of infants evoke physiological responses in mothers, most of which involve accelerated cardiac activity, increased skin conductance, and a higher rate of respiration. Several researchers have suggested that this physiological arousal caused by infant cries functions as ‘preparation for action’. When a mother finds that her infant is crying, her stress response will prompt her to approach, pick up, and attempt to console her infant.
Given that these stressful responses are a fairly typical feature of parenting, how are such responses modulated, and can they be decreased? Levenson suggests that positive emotions facilitate the process of recovery from physiological arousal provoked by negative emotions. This is called the undoing effect. Indeed, Fredrickson and Levenson showed that cardiovascular activity induced by watching a negative film returns to baseline more quickly when followed by watching a cheerful film than after a sad or neutral film. The stimulation of positive emotions associated with the undoing effect may result in the restoration of homeostatic balance. Homeostasis is dependent on the dual operation of both sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous systems. When a person faces a stressful situation, sympathetic activity becomes dominant, causing an increase in skin conductance and heart rate, which helps prepare the person for an emergency. After the person is released from the stressful situation, parasympathetic activity becomes dominant and sympathetic activity decreases, with an associated reduction in skin conductance and heart rate, which is commonly associated with a person experiencing a (relatively) quiet, relaxed state.
In the course of daily childrearing experiences, mothers experience stress reactions to their infants’ expressions of negative emotion, and subsequent positive emotional expressions of the infants may moderate or ameliorate these stress reactions. Although a number of researchers have suggested that positive infant emotional expressions are important for effective mother-infant interaction, exactly how infant smiling affects maternal physiological states remains unknown. Some functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have reported that infants’ positive emotional expressions activate various maternal brain regions, including those underlying the reward system, motor planning, and inhibition of negative emotion; the activation of these regions is thought to be necessary to initiate positive parenting behaviors. However, these studies emphasized the effects of infant smiling on changes from a calm maternal state. It is possible infant smiling might have stronger recovery effects on physiologically negative stressful states, by means of the undoing effect. These studies could therefore have underestimated the positive effects of infant smiling on maternal physiological states. Thus, it is necessary to examine whether and how infant smiling brings about positive recovery effects on mothers' physiologically stressful states, including those states caused by exposure to infants’ distress cries. In the present study, we investigated whether the happy smiling of infants attenuate their mothers' physiological responses to their preceding cries.
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[question] => The undoing effect would predict which of the following about an individual exposed to pleasant music after seeing disturbing pictures?
[value] => Array
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[answer] => 1
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
This is a “Reasoning Beyond the Text” question, which means that it wants you to either apply or extrapolate the ideas in the passage to new situations or to assess how new information would impact the ideas presented in the passage. It is important to understand the assumptions underlying the article, and how new information may or may not shift the central thesis.
In paragraph 1, the passage describes the undoing effect as being when positive emotions facilitate the process of recovery from physiological arousal provoked by negative emotions. Paragraph 2 explains that relief from stress is measured by decrease in both heart rate and skin conductance, not increased skin conductance (option 2). The undoing effect is not defined as being specific to maternal responses to infant stress (option 4). The undoing effect refers to counteracting negative reactions after they occur, not to preventing them or changing how people initially react to negative stimuli (option 3).
Option 1 is correct.
)
[answers] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[each_answer] => A. Relief from stress with decreased heart rate and decreased skin conductance.
)
[1] => Array
(
[each_answer] => B. Relief from stress with decreased heart rate and increased skin conductance.
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[2] => Array
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[each_answer] => C. If they see the pictures again, they will no longer feel that they are disturbing.
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[each_answer] => D. The undoing effect applies only to maternal responses to infant stress.
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[1] => Array
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[quiz_unique_key] => 3873426850
[question] => According to the passage, homeostasis is achieved more quickly after physiological arousal provoked by negative emotions when followed by:
[value] => Array
(
[answer] => 1
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
This is a “Foundations of Comprehension” question which is asking you to recognize an accurate paraphrase or summary of the central theme or of particular statements in the passage, or to interpret word choices made by the author.
Paragraph 2 describes a study by Fredrickson and Levenson that showed that cardiovascular activity induced by a negative emotional experience (watching a negative film) returns to baseline more quickly when followed by a positive emotional experience (watching a cheerful film) (option 1). There is no mention of the role of difficult experiences (option 2), neutral thoughts (option 3), or minimizing sensory stimulation in facilitating recovery (option 4).
Option 1 is correct.
)
[answers] => Array
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. a positive emotion.
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[1] => Array
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[each_answer] => B. a difficult experience.
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[each_answer] => C. neutral thoughts
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[each_answer] => D. minimizing sensory stimulation.
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[2] => Array
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[quiz_unique_key] => 83407773
[question] => Assume that a sample of mothers is assigned randomly to one of two groups. The average nervous system levels (both sympathetic and parasympathetic) are the same for the groups at the start of the experiment. In both groups, each mother observes a video showing her own infant’s distress cry. Each mothers in Group A is then shown a video of her infant smiling happily, while each mother in Group B is shown a video of her infant with a neutral expression. The undoing effect would predict that after watching the video of the infant smiling happily, mothers in Group A would have:
I. decreased sympathetic nervous system activity relative to themselves.
II. increased heart rate and increased skin conductance relative to mothers in Group B.
III. increased parasympathetic nervous system activity relative to mothers in Group B.
[value] => Array
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[answer] => 3
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
This is a “Reasoning Beyond the Text” question, which means that it wants you to either apply or extrapolate the ideas in the passage to new situations or to assess how new information would impact the ideas presented in the passage. It is important to understand the assumptions underlying the article, and how new information may or may not shift the central thesis.
Paragraph 2 states that when a person is stressed, sympathetic activity becomes dominant, and when a person experiences relief from stress, parasympathetic activity becomes dominant. Additionally, sympathetic activity causes an increase in skin conductance and heart rate, while parasympathetic activity causes a reduction in skin conductance and heart rate. The undoing effect would predict that watching the video of an infant smiling happily would not only cause the mothers’ parasympathetic activity to increase and sympathetic activity to decrease, but also cause it to occur more rapidly than mothers exposed to the neutral video. Thus, we would expect the mothers in group A to experience decreased sympathetic nervous system activity relative to themselves, and increased parasympathetic nervous system activity relative to the mothers in group B.
Option 3 is correct.
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. I only
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[1] => Array
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[each_answer] => B. III only
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[2] => Array
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[each_answer] => C. I and III only
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[3] => Array
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[each_answer] => D. I, II and III
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[3] => Array
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[quiz_unique_key] => 872728905
[question] => In the passage, the author illustrates the undoing effect with studies that measured responses to:
[value] => Array
(
[answer] => 4
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
This is a “Foundations of Comprehension” question which is asking you to recognize an accurate paraphrase or summary of the central theme or of particular statements in the passage, or to interpret word choices made by the author.
In paragraph 2, the author cites a study by Fredrickson and Levenson showing that “cardiovascular activity induced by watching a negative film returns to baseline more quickly when followed by watching a cheerful film than after a sad or neutral film.” No studies using electrical stimulation, music or lighting are mentioned (Options 1, 2, and 3).
Option 4 is correct.
)
[answers] => Array
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. electrical stimulation
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[1] => Array
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[each_answer] => B. Music
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[2] => Array
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[each_answer] => C. Lighting
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[3] => Array
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[each_answer] => D. Movies
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[4] => Array
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[quiz_unique_key] => 3143847772
[question] => The main purpose of the author’s new study in paragraph 3 is BEST described as showing which of the following?
[value] => Array
(
[answer] => 2
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
This is a “Foundations of Comprehension” question which is asking you to recognize an accurate paraphrase or summary of the central theme or of particular statements in the passage, or to interpret word choices made by the author.
The passage specifically discusses mothers and their interactions with their infants (options 2 and 4) rather than women interacting with children in general (options 1 and 3). Additionally, the author is particularly interested in measuring how positive infant facial expressions impact maternal physiology. In paragraph 3, the author writes, “In the present study, we investigated whether the happy smiling of infants attenuate their mothers’ physiological responses to their preceding cries” (option 2). Although the author asserts that infants’ expressions of negative emotion will cause mothers to experience stress reactions, this effect is assumed and is not the main question that is being studied (option 4), Rather, it is presented as a potential problem for which the positive effects of infant expressions examined in the study may be a solution.
Option 2 is correct.
)
[answers] => Array
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. The impact of positive infant facial expressions on women with children.
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[1] => Array
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[each_answer] => B. The impact of positive infant facial expressions on their mothers.
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[2] => Array
(
[each_answer] => C. The impact of negative infant facial expressions on women with children.
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[3] => Array
(
[each_answer] => D. The impact of negative infant facial expressions on their mothers.
)
)
)
[5] => Array
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[quiz_unique_key] => 3143847772
[question] => Which of the following assumptions about maternal emotional response is made by the author?
[value] => Array
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[answer] => 2
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
This is a “Reasoning Within the Text” question. These items generally ask you to think about the author’s reasoning, such as what claim an author is trying to support with a piece of evidence, what assumption underlies a specific statement, or whether an argument is flawed.
The passage mentions fMRI studies measuring maternal response to positive infant facial expressions in order to point out that without studies examining changes from prior negative emotional states, they cannot be directly applied to understanding the undoing effect. The author never claims or implies that fMRIs are an inadequate measure of maternal stress (option 1). The passage never makes any comparison between men and women (option 3), and also does not assume that all mothers respond to their infants’ cries with equal stress (option 4). Rather, the author wants to explore a mother’s relative response to her infant’s facial expressions. The author assumes that heart rate and skin conduction are directly correlated with a mother’s emotional response (option 2).
Option 2 is correct.
)
[answers] => Array
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[0] => Array
(
[each_answer] => A. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an inadequate way to measure maternal stress.
)
[1] => Array
(
[each_answer] => B. Physiological responses measured in mothers directly correlate with the intensity of their stress.
)
[2] => Array
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[each_answer] => C. Compared to men, women experience more physiological changes in response to distressed infants.
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[3] => Array
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[each_answer] => D. All mothers experience the same stress levels in response to their child crying.
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[559770|1] => A
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[559770|5] => B
[559770|6] => B
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