Caregiver-infant interactions

Question 1

What is the alert phase?

Answer 1

Babies periodically signal that they are ready for interaction and mother typically picks up and responds 2/3 of the time. From 3 months, these become frequent.

Question 2

What is active involvement?

Answer 2

Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and take turns in doing so

Question 3

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 3

When an adult and infant mirror what the other is doing in a synchronised manner

Question 4

Define attachment

Answer 4

The formation of a strong, two-way emotional bond between two individuals

Question 5

2 types of caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 5

Reciprocity and interacional synchrony

Question 6

What is reciprocity?

Answer 6

When the adult and infant communicate by taking turns, one action elicits a response from the other

Question 7

What are the two phases in reciprocity?

Answer 7

Alert phase and active involvement

Question 8

Brazerton et al. (1975)

Answer 8

Described reciprocity as a ‘dance’. Each partner responds to the other person’s moves

Question 9

Which study shows support for interactional synchrony?

Answer 9

Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

Question 10

Meltzoff and Moore (1977) - procedure

Answer 10

• Studied 2-3 week olds. Adult model displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions or hand movements
• A dummy was places in infant’s mouth to prevent any response
• dummy was removed and response was filmed

Question 11

Why is interactional synchrony important?

Answer 11

It leads to better quality caregiver-infant attachments

Question 12

Strength - no demand characteristics

Answer 12

• babies do not care or understand that they are being observed so don’t behave differently

Question 13

Strength - explanatory power

Answer 13

• forms the basis for social development
• infants begin to understand how others think and feel (theory of mind)

Question 14

Limitation - socially sensitive

Answer 14

• suggests that children may be disadvantaged if mother returns to work early
• restricts opportunities of acheiving interactional synchrony

Question 15

Limitation - individual differences

Answer 15

• Isabella et al. (1989) - more secure attachment with caregiver led to more interactional synchrony

Question 16

Limitation - low internal validity

Answer 16

• it is difficult to reliably test infant behaviour
• an action could be random
• difficult to distinguish between general activity and imitated behaviours

Question 17

Meltzoff and Moore (1977) - findings

Answer 17

Infants imitate the facial and hand gestures of the adult model