Caregiver infant interactions Flashcards
(11 cards)
what are the sort of interactions between baby and caregiver?
from a very early age, baby and caregiver have intense/ meaningful interactions
the quality of this is associated with successful development of attachment - two kinds of interaction: reciprocity and interactional synchrony
what is reciprocity?
when baby and caregiver respond to and elicit responses from each other
Feldman and Eidelman - mothers successfully respond around two thirds of the time to babies signals
from around 3 months, interaction becomes more intense and reciprocal
what was the traditional view about childhood and reciprocity?
that baby has the passive role and receives care from the adult
but it seems that babies are active participants - both caregiver and baby can initiate an interaction and take turns doing so
what is interactional synchrony?
when they carry out the same action simultaneously
Feldman: the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour - they mirror one another’s behaviour
what did Meltzoff and Moore do?
they observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks
adults displayed 3 facial expressions or gestures - baby response was filmed
the babies expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror the adults than chance could have predicted
what did Isabella do?
identified the importance of attachment - observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony
researchers also assessed the quality of mother- baby attachment
those with high levels of interactional synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment
Strength - of the research is the use of filmed observations
mother baby interactions are usually filmed - often from multiple angles, so very fine details of behaviour can be picked up and recorded/ analysed later
also babies don’t know they are being observed and so their behaviour does not change - no demand characteristics
means studies have good reliability and validity
Limitation is difficulty observing babies
hard to observe babies behaviour because they are not well co-ordinated and so only small gestures and expressions are observed.
it is also hard to interpret the meanings of babies movements e.g. deciding if hand movements is a response to the caregiver or a random twitch
means we cannot be certain that any particular interaction observer between baby and caregiver is meaningful
Limitation - difficulty inferring developmental importance
Feldman pointed out that synchrony( and reciprocity )simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time. these robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed, but may noy be useful as it does not tell us their purpose
this means that we cannot be certain from observations that reciprocity or synchrony are important in development
counterpoint
there is evidence e.g. Isabella - suggesting that good levels of IS and R are associated with good quality attachments
meaning on balance these early interactions are likely to have importance in development
extra - practical value vs ethics
research into early interactions has allowed psychologists to improve the quality of caregiver infant attachment - e.g. Parent Child Interaction Therapy
but it is also socially sensitive research as it can be used to argue that mothers should focus on their interaction with their children and not return to work
means the practical value may be outweighed by the negative socially sensitive consequences
