Care-giver Infant Interactions

Question 1

What is reciprocity ?

Answer 1

Responding to the action of another with similar action ,but not always the same action - it is more like a behavioural conversation

Question 2

What is international synchrony

Answer 2

Interaction between two people where the behaviour or emotions mirror each other

Question 3

Key study : Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

Answer 3

Aim:to see if infants copy facial expressions of an adult
Method :12 infants (6 males and 6 females )aged 12 to 21 days
3 facial expressions- mouth open/close ,stick tongue in/out , one hand gesture expressed by model
The researcher videoed the response of the infants ,there were intra-observed and inter-observed looking at specified categories e.g tongue protrusion

Question 4

Key study : Meltzoff and Moore (1977) findings

Answer 4

Infants copied the facial expressions
0.92 from intra and inter observers
Inter reliability rating needs to be +0.8 to be significant

Question 5

Key study : Meltzoff and Moore (1977) conclusion

Answer 5

This is indicates the behaviour is innate as the infants as so young
Proposed that this imitation is intentional i.e crying is intentional

Question 6

What is real or pseudo imitation

Answer 6

Is when the infants repeats a behaviour that has a reward as the infant has not consciously translated what they see into a matching movement
Power view is that infant imitation is developed towards the end of the first year if an infants life

Question 7

Real or pseudo imitation (Murray and trevarthen (1985) study

Answer 7

A study where they had 2 month olds interact with their mother over a video monitor in real life and also a tape of the mother so that the image in the screen was not responding to the infants facials and bodily gestures
They found out that the infant is actively eliciting a response rather than displaying a response that has a reward as when they had no attention from the tape of their mothers they turned away .therefore an infant is active and intentional partner in the mother -infant interaction . This is innate rather than learned

Question 8

Evaluation of caregiver infant interactions weakness

Answer 8

P:one problem with research relaying to infant caregiver interactions is that it’s difficult to conduct a valid test
E:evidence for this is that tests observing infant behaviour may not be reliable.infants mouths are constantly moving and the expressions that are tested in Meltzoff and Moore study occur frequently e.g yawing ,smiling .this makes it difficult to know if the expressions are general activity if imitated behaviours
E:as this is reliant on the observer’s interpretations . This means that we may nit have a valid understanding of caregiver infant interactions as they may be a subject to observer bias