care-giver infant interactions Flashcards
What are the two functions of attatchment - sullivan
survival - ensures infants engage in proximity seeking and so gain comfort and protection
Learning about the world and relationships - the quality and pattern of attatchment and care regulate infant brain function and behaviour, and so determine long-term emotional regulation.
Attatchment
An emotional bond between two people
* it is a two way process that endures overtime
* leads to certain behaviours such a clinging and proximity
* seeking and serves the function of protecting an infant
Caregiver
any person who is providing care for a child
Reciprocity
a turn taking form of interaction where both infant and caregiver contribute by reacting to each others signals and cues
Acts of caregiver elicits a response
Description of how two people interact
Interactional synchrony
where an infant tends to mirror what the caregiver is doing → serves to elicit and sustain communication between both.
What dies brazelton say about reciprocity ?
suggests this basic rhythm is an important precursor to later communications. Sensitivity to each others interactions lays foundations for future attachment.
Meltzoff and Moore
AIM
to investigate reciprocity between infants and their caregivers
Meltzoff and moore procedure
- Observed 18 infants 12- 21 days old
- Experimenter modelled an action ( open mouth / wiggle tongue etc)
- Infants reactions where recorded
- Independent observers told to identify the behaviour ( not told what the adult is doing)
Why did they video record the babys reactions?
In order for the observers to be able to freezeframe and slow the videos down to see the reactons more clearly - ** increaes internal validity **
Why did they use independent observers
bserver is often an experimenter who may be biassed to determine the interactions to support their findings.The way this can be overcome is by having independent observers who are not knowledgeable of the aims of the study and consequently the internal validity increases.
Meltzoff and moore
findings and conclusions
Found that there was a response / association between adults behaviour and infants response .
Infant imitating adult - interaction synchrony
~* Suggests ability to observe and reciprocate through imitation at an early age
the infant was imitating the adult
what is a controlled observation?
researchers watch participants in a contained environment such as a lab
The researcher pre determines and controls the study variables and determines the location,the time , the ppt and the tools used to complete the study.
Strengths - caregiver infant interactions
- Good internal validity → research into attachment often used high camera systems which can be slowed down to improve observation of the interactions
- Good inter - rater ability → research into attachment often uses multiple observers
M/M more than one observer used to examine the inter -obeserve reliability of the observations
Value to society → identification of interactional synchrony as important to formation of good quality attachments could be beneficial to society
Limitations - caregiver infant interactions
- Infants cannot directly communicate → cgi based on inferences → assumptions not scientific → inferences could cause for mistakes such as imitation may have been automatic reflex response
*Social sensitivity → when investigating child rearing techniques - some mothers may feel criticised Such as mothers returning to work are unable to develop a high level of interactional synchrony
- Reliability of testing on children - infants mouths are constantly moving - cannot be certain whether reciprocity or interactional synchrony or just chance → questions validity
- Methodological problems with observational methods - possibility of observer bias of unconsciously interpret behaviour to support findings
- Isabella et al → found that the more securely attached the infant the greater the level of interactional synchrony - suggests not all children engage in interactional synchrony - individual differences
Briefly discuss how researchers might address difficulties encountered when trying to investigate caregiver-infant interaction.
One issue that may be encountered when trying to investigate caregiver- infant interaction is the difficulty of being able to distinguish between general activity and imitated behaviour from the infant.A way that this can be addressed is illustrated by Meltzoff and Moore’s study where they video recorded the babies responses to the gestures and had the observers to judge from the video.Therefore, this allowed the observer to be able to slow down and freeze frame when needing to, so then is able to distinguish and interpret the babies reactions much more accurately.Another issue they may encounter is observer bias where the observer is often an experimenter who may be biassed to determine the interactions to support their findings.The way this can be overcome is by having independent observers who are not knowledgeable of the aims of the study and consequently the internal validity increases.
