social referencing definition

Social referencing refers to the process wherein infants use the affective displays of an adult to regulate their behaviors toward environmental objects, persons, and situations. Social referencing represents one of the major mechanisms by which infants come to understand the world around them.
In the last quarter of the first year, infants become capable of integrating interpersonal communication with objects and situations in the environment. Infants in this period are capable of viewing their parents as teachers and sources of knowledge about the environment; thus, there is true two-person communication about third events, including people and objects in the environment, which yields meaning about the world to the infant [ 2 ]. With newly acquired knowledge about environmental events, infants are capable of regulating their behaviors toward people and objects in accordance with the appraisals given them by caregivers.

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social appraisal, social referencing
Social referencing informs and regulates one’s relation with the environment as a function of the perceived appraisals of social partners. Increased emphasis on relational and social contexts in the study of emotion makes this interpersonal process particularly relevant to the field. However, theoretical conceptualizations and empirical operationalizations of social referencing are disjointed across domains and populations of study. This article seeks to unite and refine the study of this construct by providing a clear and comprehensive definition of social referencing. Our perspective presents social referencing and social appraisal as coterminous processes and emphasizes the importance of a relational and interpersonal approach to the study of emotion. We conclude by outlining possible lines of research on this construct.

References:

http://carta.anthropogeny.org/moca/topics/social-referencing
http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/2988/
http://libguides.reading.ac.uk/citing-references/referencingstyles