Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony Flashcards
(27 cards)
What is attachment?
Attachment is a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.
What are caregiver infant interactions?
Care-giver infant interactions are the behaviours shown between a caregiver and a child that help attachments to develop and be maintained.
How do attachments develop between infants and caregivers?
Through a reciprocal (two-way) process where both respond to and influence each other’s behaviours and emotions.
Why are caregiver-infant interactions important for development?
They influence a child’s physical, neurological, cognitive and psychological development, and help form secure emotional bonds.
What long-term effect can caregiver infant attachments have?
It shapes the child’s ability to trust, relate to others, and form relationships throughout life.
How does sensitivity between caregiver and infant affect attachment?
The more sensitive they are to each other’s signals, the deeper the communications and emotional bond between them.
What is reciprocity in caregiver-infant interactions?
A back-and-forth exchange where each responds to the others’ cues. e.g. a baby smiles and the caregiver smiles back, encouraging more interaction.
Give an example of reciprocity in caregiver-infant interactions.
An infant’s smile causes the caregiver to smile. which leads to more vocalisations and gestures from both.
What is interactional synchrony in caregiver-infant interactions?
When the caregiver’s speech and the infant’s behaviour are finely synchronised, often mirroring facial expressions and movements.
How does interactional synchrony help in attachment?
It creates a shared rhythm and emotional connection, enhancing mutual understanding and bonding.
What are “alert phases” in infant behaviour?
Periods when babies signal (e.g. through eye contact) that they are ready for interaction. Mothers typically respond to these signals about 2/3 of the time (Feldman and Eidelman)
What factors affect a mother’s response to a baby’s alert phases?
The mother’s skill and external factors such as stress (Finegood et al.)
How does reciprocity develop after 3 months?
Caregiver-infant interactions become more frequent and involve both parties paying close attention to verbal signal and facial expressions (Feldman)
Are babies passive in interactions with caregivers?
No - babies are active participants who can initiate interactions and take turns, just like in a dance (Brazelton et al.)
What did Brazelton et al. (1975) compare caregiver-infant interaction to?
A ‘dance’ where each partner responds to the other’s moves in a turn-taking style.
Define interactional synchrony.
The temporal coordination of micro-level social behaviour, where a caregiver and infant mirror each other’s actions and emotions.
When does interactional synchrony begin?
As early as 2 weeks old, according to Meltzoff and Moore, who observed babies imitating facial expressions and gestures.
What did Meltzoff and Moore (1977) find in their study on synchrony?
Babies were significantly more likely to mirror adults’ expressions/gestures than chance would predict, showing early synchrony.
Why is interactional synchrony important for attachment?
High levels of synchrony are linked to better quality attachments, including greater emotional intensity (Isabella et al.)
What is a strength of using filmed observations in caregiver infant interaction research?
Filmed observations allow for control of distractions, replay for analysis, multiple observers to check reliability, and reduce reactivity since babies are unaware of observation.
Why do filmed observations improve the reliability of caregiver infant research?
Because key behvaiours are less likely to be missed, and inter-rater reliability can be established through multiple observers
Why is baby behaviour difficult to interpret in research?
Babies have limited movement and may show subtle actions (e.g. facial movements and hand twitches) that are hard to link to specific stimuli or emotions.
What does the difficult in interpreting babies’ behaviour imply for the research?
It limits our certainty about the meaning of observed behaviours like smiling or movement, questioning the validity of findings.
Why is there a limitation in just observing caregiver-infant interactions?
Observing behaviours like synchrony and reciprocity doesn’t tell us their function or important for development. (Feldman)
