Caregiver Infant Interactions in Humans

Question 1

What is attachment?

Answer 1

• Close two-way emotional bond between 2 individuals
• Each one feels more secure when with the other
• Takes a few months to develop

Question 2

What are the 3 attachment behaviours?

Answer 2

• Proximity
• Separation distress
• Secure base behaviour

Question 3

What is proximity?

Answer 3

People try to stay physically close to those they are attached to

Question 4

What is separation distress?

Answer 4

People are distressed when an attachment figure leaves

Question 5

What is secure base behaviour?

Answer 5

Explore the environment but return to attachment figure for comfort

Question 6

Interactions between very young babies and their parents are…

Answer 6

baby led

Question 7

What are the 2 important building blocks for the development of attachment?

Answer 7

• Reciprocity
• Interactional synchrony

Question 8

What is Reciprocity?

Answer 8

• It’s how two people interact
• Infant and caregiver are both active contributors in the interaction and are responding to each other
• Caregiver infant interaction is reciprocal as the infant and caregiver respond to each other’s signals and each elicit a response from the other
• This helps to facilitate an attachment

Question 9

Explain Tronik et al

Answer 9

• Asked mothers who had been enjoying a dialogue with their baby to stop moving and maintain a static, unsmiling expression on their faces
• Babies would try to tempt the mother into interaction by smiling themselves
• Babies would become puzzler and increasingly distressed when their smile did not provoke the ‘usual’ response

Question 10

What research supports Reciprocity?

Answer 10

Murray and Trevarthen (1985)?

Question 11

Explain Murray and Trevarthen (1985)

Answer 11

• Condicted on 2 month old infants
• Infants interacted with their mothers via a video monitor in real time
• Then the video monitor played a tape recording of their mother, so the image on the screen was not responding in real time
• In the second condition, the infant showed acute distress - they tried to interact with their mothers and when they gained no response, they turned away

Question 12

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 12

• When two people interact and tend to mirror what the other is doing and this is coordinated
• When the infant smiles, the caregiver smiles back to the infant
• Interaction is rhythmic

Question 13

What research supports interactions synchrony?

Answer 13

Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

Question 14

Explain Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

Answer 14

• An adult model displayed one of three facial experiences
• A dummy was placed in the infants mouth initially to prevent response
• Following the display, the dummy was removed and the child’s expression was filmed on video
• Infants as young as 3 days old imitate the facial expressions of adults
• This implies that the ability to mirror is an innate behaviour

Question 15

What are the advantages of Caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 15

• Many studies involving observation of interactions between mothers and infants have shown the same patterns of interaction
• Caregiver-infant interactions are generally well-controlled procedures - all fine details of behaviour are recorded and analysed
• No social desirability - babies don’t know or care that they are being observed

Question 16

What are limitations of Caregiver-infant interaction?

Answer 16

• The infants imitations could be a coincidence
• Interactional synchrony suggest that the infant intentionally mimics the caregiver, however Piaget believes that true imitation only develops towards the end of the first year