Attachment: Caregiver-infant interaction Flashcards
What is attachment?
a close 2 way reciprocal emotional bond between 2 individuals
What is attachment characterized by?
-proximity
-separation distress
-secure base behaviour
What does reciprocity mean?
that interaction is a 2 way mutual process where parties take it in turns to respond to each other
-each parties behaviour elicits a response from the other
-reinforces the bond
What phases are involved in reciprocity?
Alert phases-at periodic times babies signal they are ready for interaction
Feldman(2007) found after 3 months this increases in frequency
Active involvement-both parties initiate interaction and take turns doing so
Brazelton(1975)described this as a dance where they respond to each others moves
What is interactional synchrony?
3 points
where the adult and infant mirror each others actions and appear as 1 person
both respond in time to sustain communication
reinforces the bond
What did Meltzoff and Moore (1997) study?
What did Isabella(1989) observe?
Beginning of synchrony
-observed IS in babies from 2 weeks old
-adult displayed 1/3 face expressions and 1/3 gestures
-they found a significant association with the adult and the babies expressions/gestures
-observed 30 mums and infants and assessed degree of synchrony and quality of the attachment
-found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachments
What are the strengths of research into caregiver - infant interactions?
-there is only 1 !
+research is done in controlled environment
-activities that may distract the baby can be controlled-
-increases the reliability and validity of the research
What are the weaknesses of research into caregiver-infant interactions?
-there are 2!
-practicality issues
-babies sleep for long periods of time which limits the time available for research , studying the baby not fully awake may lower validity
-issue of intentionality
(Feldman 2012) found that synchrony and reciprocity define behaviour but don’t tell us why they happen
-difficult to conclude wether behaviours are deliberate
HOWEVER .. there is evidence that both help improve language and moral development
