Caregiver infant iteractions-EVALUATION

Question 1

what is a strength of filming obseravtions?

Answer 1

filming in a lab means that it is a CONTROLLED observation.

this reduces EXTRANEOUS variables from becoming confounding and affecting the validity of the study.

Recording also allows researcher to GO BACK and replay, ensuring no behaviour has been missed, raising validity,

Question 2

what is a strength of the observation being covert?

Answer 2

the observation is COVERT meaning the babies will NOT CHANGE their behaviour due to the presence of the researcher.

(High internal validity and reliability)

Question 3

What is one weakness of observing babies?

Answer 3

they are HARD to observe and interpret their behaviours. e.g. a smile may be wind.

babies lack co-ordination, SUBTLE movements may not be noticed, and whether they have a SPECIAL meaning behind them or not.

THEREFORE,

this affects the internal validity of the study as we may not be measuring caregiver -infant interaction as we believed.

Question 4

one strength of caregiver infant interactional synchorny is that it has practical value in PARENTING SKILLS TRAINING.

Answer 4

Rebecca Crotwell found that a 10 minute parent child interaction therapy IMPROVED interactional synchrony in 20 low income mothers and their pre-school children.

HOWEVER this reserach can be SOCIALLY SENSITIVE as it can be used to argue that when a mum returns to WORK soon after having a baby this may RISK damaging their babys DEVELOPMENT.

The cost-benefit is that the research produces GREATER practical VALUE of helping mothers and their babies improve their interactional synchorny.