Caregiver-Infant Interactions

Question 1

Attachment

Answer 1

A close, two-way, emotional bond where each individual sees the other as essential for their emotional security.

Question 2

Reciprocity

Answer 2

• turn taking/responding with behaviour
• eliciting a response from the other (not necessarily the same behaviours back)
  E.g mum smiles so baby smiles back

Question 3

Alert phase

Answer 3

From birth babies signal when they are ready to interact.

Question 4

Brazelton (1979) - Reciprocity

Answer 4

• the rhythm of reciprocity is important for later communication.
  -The regularity of the infant signals allows the caregiver to anticipate future behaviour: lays foundations of attachment.

Question 5

interactional synchrony

Answer 5

• when an infant and caregiver mirror each other (moving in synchrony)
  E.g a mother and baby clapping in time with each other

Question 6

Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

Answer 6

• observed beginnings of Interactional synchrony, using infants as young as 2 weeks old.
• adult displayed one of three facial expressions or three distinctive gestures
  Findings: babies as young as 12-27 days would attempt to imitate the adult

Question 7

Isabella et al (1989)

Answer 7

• observed 30 mothers and infants and assessed the degree of synchrony and the quality of mother-infant attachment.
• found that higher levels of Interactional Synchrony were associated with better quality mother- infant attachments.

Question 8

+ Filmed observations (ao3)

Answer 8

• means you can review and analyse footage later for things you’ve missed or misinterpreted, this increases validity/reliability.
• babies don’t know they’re being filmed so the issue of demand characteristics cannot be raised as they act naturally. ( this is an issue for most recorded studies)

Question 9

• ethical issues (ao3)

Answer 9

• babies are much more fragile and impressionable so extra care must be taken, they also can’t give consent.

Question 10

• difficulty inferring developmental importance (ao3)

Answer 10

• Feldman (2012) says that synchrony and reciprocity can describe behaviours that occur at the same time and can be reliably observed.
• but this may not be useful as it doesn’t tell us their purpose/importance in development.

Question 11

• difficult observing babies (ao3)

Answer 11

• babies have an irregular sleep/daily schedule so it’s difficult to find a suitable time to observe them for best results.
• infants mouths and hands are constantly in motion so it is hard to decide whether their actions are imitations of behaviour or just involuntary/unrelated movements.
  ➡️meltzoff and Moore overcame this by having an external person observe the babies behaviour and judge or (they didn’t know it was being imitated). This increases internal validity.