Caregiver Infant Interactions

Question 1

Attachment

Answer 1

A 2 way emotional bond between 2 individuals
* A two way process that takes time to develope

Question 2

Caregiver infant interactions

Answer 2

• They have important functions for the child’s social developement
• good quality early social interactions = successful developement of attachment between babies + caregiver(s)

Question 3

Attachment (ST + LT)

Answer 3

• Short term = food + protection, increasing survival
• Long term = Learning a model for future relationships

Question 4

Behaviors displayed to recognise an attachment

Answer 4

1. Proximity - People try to stay physically close to their attachment fig
2. Separation distress - People are stressed when an attachment fig leaves their presence
3. Secure base behavior - When independent from attachment fig, we still make regular contact with them. E.g. infant regularly returns to caregiver whilst playing

Question 5

Reciprocity

Answer 5

A description of how two people interact
* when each person responds to the other’s signals and elicits a response from them
* Reciprocal interaction (meaningful)
* e.g. smiling - infant smiles->triggers a smile in the caregiver vice versa
* “turn taking”

Question 6

Reciprocity - still face experiment

Question 7

Alert Phrases

Answer 7

Babies have periodic ‘alert phrases’ - signal that they are ready for interaction (e.g. eye contact)
* Feldman + Eidelman (2007) - mothers typically respond to their alertness two-thirds of the time
* Finegood et al - varies according to skill of mother + external factors (e.g. stress)
* Feldman - from three months this interaction tends to become more frequent

Question 8

Active involvement

Answer 8

Babies + caregivers both take an active role - both initiate interactions and take turns doing so
* Brazeltion et al (1975) - emphasised this in caregiver infant interactions + described it as a ‘dance’ - take turns to respond to each others behavior

Question 9

Interactional synchrony

Answer 9

Caregiver + baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other (same actions, same time). Act in a way that mirrors each other
* Meltzoff + Moore (1977) - observed babies as young as two weeks old. Adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions/distinctive gestures + babies repsonsed filmed and observed. Found that they were likely to imitate facial and hand gestures of those of adults, which shows that synchrony begins at an early age
* Isabella et al (1989) - assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment + degree of synchrony in 30 mother and babies and found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment, which shows that interactional synchrony is important for attachment.

Question 10

Observations

Answer 10

1. Controlled - likely carried out in a psychology lab e.g. strange situation
2. Naturalistic involves observing spontaneous behavior of pps in natural surroundings. The researcher simply records what they see in whatever way they can

Question 11

AO3: Obeserving infants - certainty (limitation)

Answer 11

P: Hard to interpret babies behavior/difficult to test baby’s behavior in a reliable manner
E: Young babies lack coordination - movements observed could be very subtle, so it is difficult to be sure whether their actions are general activity or specific imitated behaviours. e.g. cannot know whether a mvoement such as a hand twitch is random/triggered by caregiver
E: A study by Koepke et al. failed to replicate the findings of Meltzoff and Moore, which may suggest that the original findings were unreliable.
L: We cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning. As a result, this reduces the validity of the research evidence into caregiver-infant interactions.

Question 12

AO3: Controlled obeservations capture fine detail (strength)

Answer 12

P: A strength of the research into early caregiver-infant interactions is that it uses well-controlled procedures
E: Other activities, such as toys, that might distract a baby can be controlled. Also, as the research is usually filmed, details of behaviour can be recorded and analysed later by psychologists.
E: This allows valid conclusions to be drawn because inter-rater reliability can be established by having other observers re-watch the tapes and compare their findings to see if they were similar and thus reliable.
L: Therefore, the data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity.

Question 13

AO3: socially sensitive

Answer 13

P: A weakness of research into caregiver-infant interactions is that it is socially sensitive. This is because the implications of findings suggest that low levels of caregiver-infant interaction lead to insecure attachment which potentially damaging the baby’s development, and may continue into their adulthood.
E: The findings not only pose a dilemma for working mothers, but also reinforce gender stereotypes that women should prioritise childcare over their career. This shows that this view is criticised because appears to discourage women from being mothers with a career.
Counter: However, research into caregiver-infant interaction had practical applications in parenting skills training. For example, Crotwell et al. found that a 10-minute Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) improved interactional synchrony in 20 mothers and their children.
L: This shows that practical values may outweigh the social sensitivity of the research, therefore the research remain valuable.

Question 13

AO3: