Caregiver-Infant Interactions (Attachment) Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is Attatchment
A close two way emotion bond between individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security
What are the 3 attachment behaviours according to Maccoby
Proximity, separation distress and secure base behaviour
Explain proximity
People try to stay physically close to those who they are attatched to
Explain separation distress
People are distressed when an attachment figure leaves
Explain secure base behaviour
People explore the environment but return to attachment figure for comfort
What is one of the key interactions between caregivers and infants
Non verbal communications - communication without words and sometimes without sound
Why does non verbal communications link to attachment
The manner in which each person responds to the other, the more sensitive each is to the others signals, the deeper the relationship
What is the long term and short term benefits of non verbal communications
Short-term- survival
Long term - emotional relationships - this first relationship acts as a template for later relationships
What is reciprocity
Where each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them
How does reciprocity link to attachment
-Babies and their mothers spend a long time interacting with each other
-Mothers typically pick up and respond to the infants alertness
-This develops at around 3 months by an interaction that is reciprocity
What are alert phases (Feldman + Eidelman)
Babies have alert phases and signal they are ready for interaction
Mothers typically pick up on this and respond 2 thirds of the time
What is active involvement
From 3+ months interactions tend to be more frequenct and involve close attention to each others verbal signals + facial expressions (Feldman)
Both babies and caregivers can take on an active role - Brazelton descibed this as a ‘dance’ as they typically take this in turns
What does Brazelton say about Active involvement
Describes the interaction as a dance because each person responds to the others moves
What is interactional synchrony
The mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other in a synchronised way
When interactions happen, actions are mirrored by the other
What did Meltzoff and Moore do (interactional Synchrony)
-Observed the beginning interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old
-Adults displayed one of three facial expressions
-The Childs response was filmed
What did Meltzoff and Moore find
-There was an association between the infant behaviour and that of the adult model.
-Infants as young as 2 to 3 weeks old imitated specific facial and hand gestures - showed interactional synchrony
What is a strength of caregiver infant interactions
controlled observations Meltzoff and Moore –> interactions are filmed from multiple angles. This allows for detailed analysis of behaviour, and since babies don’t know they’re being observed, their behaviour remains natural—improving the validity of the findings.
What are the limitations of caregiver-infant interactions
Hard to interpret what’s really happening from the infant’s perspective Gratier (2003) found that although patterns in behaviour are consistent, we can’t be certain if infants’ actions—like imitation—are conscious/intentional. This makes it difficult to understand the true meaning behind their behaviour, reducing the validity of the findings.
Observations don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity e.g Feldman points out that synchrony and reciprocity simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time. These can be reliably observed, but it doesn’t tell us the purpose of these caregiver-infant interactions
