infant interactions, reciprocity and interactional synchrony Flashcards
what is reciprocity?
it is how two people interact
how are caregiver-infant interactions reciprocal?
they are reciprocal in that both the caregiver and infant respond to each others signals and each elicits a response from each other. its a two way process
what are alert phrases?
are signals that babies give when they are ready for some social interaction. they are also said to have active involvement in initiating social interaction.
what did Jaffe et al (1973) say about reciprocity?
infants coordinate their actions with their caregivers. interactions resemble a conversation- turn taking. such rhythms are observed to be present from birth.
what did Brazelton (1979) say about reciprocity?
interactions resemble a ‘dance’- both respond to each other. they are important for the development of communication skills. they provide the foundation for attachments that will later develop.
what did Feldman and Eidelman (2007) say about reciprocity?
they observed that mothers pick up on and respond to their babies alert phases around 2/3 of the time
what did Finegood (2016) say about reciprocity?
a mothers abilitiy to pick up on her baby’s alert phrases will depend on her skill as a mother. it can be lower when she is under stress.
what is interactional synchrony?
it is when two people tend to mirror each other when they interact. this includes imitating emotions as well as behaviour. they do this in a coordinated and synchronised way.
how did Feldman (2007) describe interactional synchrony?
he described it as ‘the temporal co-ordination of micro level social behaviour’
what did Meltzoff and Moore (1977) say about interactional synchrony?
they showed faces displaying 3 gestures to babies as young as 2 weeks. the response of the baby was filmed and then identified by an independent observer (who hadn’t seen the gesture shown to the baby). an association was found between the expression or gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the babies. Meltzoff and Moore claimed that the imitation was intentional
what did Isabella et al (1989) say about interactional synchrony?
she observed 30 mothers and infants together, assessing the levels of synchrony. they also assessed the quality of mother-infant interactions. they showed that interactional synchrony corresponded with the level of attachment, where high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant interactions
AO3: how is ‘advantages of using observations’ a strength to the research into reciprocity and interactional synchrony?
one strength is that the caregiver-infant interactions are usually filmed. this means that high levels of control prevent extraneous variables from effecting the research. if its videoed it can also be checked multiple times to check for accuaracy. it can also be easy to replicate due to controlled settings and there is interobserver reliability. therefore the data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity.
AO3: how is ‘real life application’ a strength to the research into reciprocity and interactional synchrony?
if they understand the factors that lead to more effective attachments that can be profoundly important in trying to ensure that an attachement forms between all caregivers and infant pairs. for example, if new mothers are encouraged to interact with their babies in such a way, layer attachments with their children will be stronger. these interactions will affect future relationships as well as other aspects of their child’s life. this means that the research into early caregiver-infant interactions has real value.
AO3: how is ‘difficulties of observing babies’ a limitation to the research of reciprocity and interactional synchrony?
one limitation of using observations to gather evidence for the significance of these early caregiver-infant interactions is that it can be hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour. for example, we can tell what the do but to why. we cant tell what is taking place from the infants perspective. is the behaviour deliberate or coincidental? this means that we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infants interactions have special meaning
AO3: how is ‘it is a partial explanation’ a limitation to the research into reciprocity and interactional synchrony?
this research can be criticised because whilst these behaviours have been observed in lots of research, and appear to be a fairly robust phenomena, it doesnt really inform us of the developmental importance of the phenomena. what is the purpose of these behaviours? however some lines of research have identified reasons why these early interactions are so important. for example, their association with good quality attachments, as well as strong communication skills
