Caregiver- infant interactions ATM

Question 1

reciprocity

Answer 1

a description of how two people interact

Question 2

interactional synchrony

Answer 2

caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a coordinated way

Question 3

attachment

Answer 3

a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security

Question 4

Which behaviours help recognice attachment?

Answer 4

• Proximity
• Separation distress
• Secure-base behaviour

Question 5

proximity

Answer 5

people try to stay physically close to their attachment figure

Question 6

separation distress

Answer 6

people show signs of anxiety when an attachment figure leaves their presence

Question 7

secure-base behaviour

Answer 7

we are independent of our attachment figure but we tend to make regular contact with them

Question 8

turn taking

Answer 8

For example the caregiver might smile at the baby and then the baby responds

Question 9

Alert phase

Answer 9

• Babies signal if they are ready for an interaction
• Mothers pick up on this around ⅔ of the time (Feldman and Eidelman)
• This varies according to mothers external factors (Finegood et al)
• At 3 months the interaction become more frequent (Feldman)

Question 10

Active involvement

Answer 10

• Traditional views of babies said that they had a passive role
• Babies and caregivers actually have an active role
• **Brazelton et al **described initiate interactions ad a ‘dance’ because it’s like when a couple dance they respond to the other persons moves

Question 11

How does Feldman define interactional synchrony?

Answer 11

‘the temporal coordination of micro level social behaviour’

Question 12

Synchrony begins → Meltzoff and Moore

Answer 12

• observed interactional synchrony at babies 2 weeks old
• An adult did one of 3 facial expressions or gestures
• Babies response was filmed and labelled by independent observers
• There was a significant association as babies were most likely to mirror the adults

Question 13

Important for attachment → Isabella et al

Answer 13

• Interactional synchrony is important for development of caregiver-infant attachment
• Observed 30 babies and mothers and assessed egress of synchrony
• Also assessed the quality of mother baby attachment
• High levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment

Question 14

the babyface hypothesis

Answer 14

• People find adult faces with an element of ‘babyfaceness’ as the most attractive (**Langlois **& Roggmann, 1990)
• Characteristics include big eyes, large forehead and squashed up snoz

Question 15

filmed observations

strength

Answer 15

• The caregiver-infant interactions are usually filmed in a lab
• Distractions for baby can be controlled
• Observations can be recorded and evaluated later
• Unlikely that researchers will miss key behaviours
• Inter-rater reliability
• Babies don’t know they are being observed so they don’t change their behaviour
  The data collected will have good reliability and validity

Question 16

difficulty observing babies

Answer 16

• Hard to interpret babies behaviour
• Young babies lack coordination and have imobile bodies
• Small movements being observed
• Difficult to be sure if a baby is smiling or passing wind
  We cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning

Question 17

development importance and counterpoint

strength and limitation

Answer 17

• Observing a behaviour does not tell us it developmental importance
• Feldman points out that ideas like synchrony just names patterns
• May not be useful in understanding child development
  We cannot be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child’s development

BUT
**Isabella et al **found evidence for importance of early interactions

A balance of caregiver-infant interaction is important