Attachment - 01 (1-Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony)

Question 1

What is a bond?

Answer 1

-A set of feelings that tie one person to another
-We can not see this as we can not see feelings

Question 2

What is an attachment?

Answer 2

-A close two-way emotional tie between 2 individuals who see the other as essential for their own emotional security.
-Takes a few months to develop
-we can see this when we observe behaviour

Question 3

What are the 3 attachment behaviours?

Answer 3

1-Proximity
2-Separation distress
3-Secure base behaviour

Question 4

What is proximity?

Answer 4

When people try to stay physically close to those they are attached to

Question 5

What is separation distress?

Answer 5

When people are distressed when an attachment figure leaves

Question 6

What is secure base behaviour?

Answer 6

When people explore the environment but return back to the attachment figure for comfort

Question 7

What are the 2 types of caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 7

1-Reciprocity
2-Interactional synchrony

Question 8

What is reciprocity?

Answer 8

-when an infant responds to the actions of another person
-A form of turn-taking
the actions of the primary caregiver elicits a response from the infant

Question 9

What did Brazelton compare reciprocity to?

Answer 9

A dance

Question 10

When does reciprocity usually start?

Answer 10

From around 3 months

Question 11

What did the still face experiment by Tronick show?

Answer 11

Shows the importance of reciprocity as the babies became highly distressed when the caregiver gave no reaction despite all of the babies efforts to get a response

Question 12

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 12

When infants mirror the actions or emotions of another person in sync.

Question 13

What does interactional synchrony play a critical role in?

Answer 13

developmental outcomes in terms of self-regulation and the capacity for empathy

Question 14

Who conducted the key study into interactional synchrony?

Answer 14

Meltzoff & Moore

Question 15

How did Meltzoff & Moore investigate interactional synchrony?

Answer 15

-controlled observation
-adult model displayed 4 different stimuli and child’s response was recorded and analysed

Question 16

Meltzoff & Moore found that infants as young as what imitated specific facial and hand gestures?

Answer 16

two weeks

Question 17

Did Meltzoff and Moore’s results support or disprove the idea of interactional synchrony?

Answer 17

support

Question 18

What did Meltzoff & Moore find in their study?

Answer 18

An association was found between expressions or gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the baby

Question 19

What suggests that interactional synchrony is innate?

Answer 19

The fact that the infants as young as two weeks were displaying this behaviour showing it is not learned but natural

Question 20

One strength of research into care-giver infant interaction
(real life applications + counterargument)

Answer 20

-research found they are important in developing attachments. empathy, language and moral development
-mothers encouraged to participate in such behaviours
COUNTERARGUMENT
-Socially sensitive = suggesting mothers should not return back to work or make them feel guilty for going back to work

Question 21

One weakness of research into care-giver infant interaction
(difficulties reliability testing infant’s behaviour + counterargument)

Answer 21

-Infants usually in constant motion + expressions tested occur frequently
-difficult to distinguish between general activity + imitated activity
COUNTERARGUMENT
-Abravanel + Deyong found infants had little response to objects and that there is a special social response to humans

Question 22

One weakness of research into care-giver infant interaction (methodological problems)

Answer 22

-possibly observer bias
-research by Koepke et al (1983) failed to replicate finding of Meltzoff and Moore = unreliable = reduces internal validity

Question 23

One weakness of research into care-giver infant interaction
(assumes all infants engage in interactional synchrony to the same degree)

Answer 23

-recent research found only securely attached infants engage in interactional synchrony
-Isabella et al (1989) = the more securely attached the infant, the greater the level of interactional synchrony
-may have overlooked individual differences which could be a mediating factor