Caregiver Interactions Flashcards
(11 cards)
What is meant by attachment?
Attachment can be defined as an emotional relationship between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in presence of the attachment figure
What is reciprocity?
Reciprocity is a two way/ mutual process; each party responds to each other’s signals to sustain interaction ( turn taking). The behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other.
Examples of reciprocity ?
- Babies have ‘alert phases’ and signal they are ready for interaction (i.e.making eye contact)
- Feldman and Eidelman (2007) suggest that mothers (typically) pick up on and respond to alertness (2 thirds of time)
What is interactional synchrony
Refers to how a parent’s speech and infant’s behaviour become finely synchronised so that they are in direct response to one another.
- the infant and the mother mirror their actions in some way.
What is a research supporting interactional synchrony by Isabella and Belsky?
Found a link between interactional synchrony and attachment quality.
- Babies that showed more synchronous behaviour (interacted in a mutually rewarding manner) were more likely to have a secure attachment.
- Babies that showed less synchronous behaviour (poorly coordinated) were more likely to have an insecure atttachment.
What is the aim and procedure to measure interactional synchrony by Meltzoff and Moore (1977)?
- Aim: To examine interactional synchrony in infants as young as two-three weeks old.
- Method: Using a controlled observation, an adult model displayed one of three facial expressions, or a hand gesture. To start with, the child had a dummy placed in his/her mouth to prevent a facial response. Following the display from the adult model, the dummy was removed and the child’s expressions were filmed.
What are the results and conclusions by Meltzoff and Moore (1977) on interactional synchrony?
There was a clear association between the infants’ behaviour and that of the adult model. Later research by Meltzoff and Moore (1983) found the same findings in three-day-old infants.
•it can be concluded that these findings suggest that interactional synchrony is innate.
What is a strength of observation of caregiver interactions?
P: A strength of observations into caregiver-infant interactions, is that they generally use well-controlled procedures with both the mother and infant being filmed
E: This ensures the very fine details of behaviour can be recorded and later analysed. Furthermore, babies don’t know or care that they are being observed, so their behaviour does not change in response to controlled observations
L: Therefore the research has good validity
What is a weakness of observing caregiver interactions?
P: A weakness of observing infant interactions is that it is difficult to know what they mean by these interactions
E: For example, you might observe hand movements or changes in expression, but it is difficult to know if this imitation of adult signals is deliberate or not
L: This means we can not really know for certain that behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interaction have a special meaning.
What is a weakness of research into caregiver interactions?
P: A weakness of research into mother-infant interaction, is that it could be considered unethical, as it is socially sensitive
E: Isabella et al (1989) found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother. infant interactions
L: This suggests that mothers should not return to work so soon, as they may be considered a ‘bad mother’ or alternatively may be made to feelguilty for returning to work
What is a another weakness of observation into caregiver interactions? (purpose)
P: A weakness of observations is that they don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity
E: So we are able to describe these terms and reliably observe them, but this may not be particularly useful as it does not tell us their purpose
L: However, there is some evidence that reciprocal interaction and synchrony are helpful in the development in attachment.
