ATTACHMENT: Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony

Question 1

from the start babies have

Answer 1

meaningful social interactions w their caregivers

Question 2

What do psychologists think about the meaningful social interactions babies have with their caregivers

Answer 2

interactions have important functions for a child’s social development

Question 3

What are good quality early social interactions associated with

Answer 3

successful development attahcmnets

between babies & caregivers

Question 4

From birth what do ababies and mothers spend a lot of time in

Answer 4

highly pleasurable interactions

Question 5

an interaction shows reciprocity when

Answer 5

each person responds to each other
and elicits a response from them

Question 6

Give an example of reciprocity

Answer 6

a baby smiles

adult responds by saying something

this in turn causes a response from the baby

Question 7

reciprical interactions aka

Answer 7

turn taking

Question 8

Why is reciprocal interaction essential in anyb conversation

Answer 8

people will talk over each other

Question 9

babys have periodic …..

Answer 9

alert phases

Question 10

What do baabies signal during periodic alert phases

Answer 10

they are readu for interaction e.g through eye contact

Question 11

how often do mothers pick up on their babies alertness and who dcarried out this research

Answer 11

2/3s of the time

feldman and eidelman

Question 12

mothers pick up on their abbies alertness 2/3s of the time why would this vary

Answer 12

external factors such as stress

Question 13

From around 3 months what happens to the periodic alert phases and what does it involve

Answer 13

more frequent

involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each othr signals - verbal and facila expressions

Question 14

How have traditional views of childhood portrayed babaies

Answer 14

passicve role recieving care from adult

Question 15

T/F babies and caregivers play an active role

Answer 15

TRUE

Question 16

Both caregivers and babies do what

and how do they split this inbetween them

Answer 16

initiate interactions

they take turns

Question 17

Who describe interactions between babies and caregivers as a dance

Answer 17

Brazelton

Question 18

Why did Brazelton call itneractins between adult and babies a dance

Answer 18

like a couples dance where each partner responds to the others moves

Question 19

What is Interactional Synchrony

Answer 19

caregiver and baby interact in way actions and emotions mirror each other

Question 20

What did Meltzoff and Moore observe

Answer 20

beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old

Question 21

Explain what meltzoff and moore did

Answer 21

adult displayed 1/3 gestures or facial expressions

babaies response

filmed and labelled by the independent observers

Question 22

What did Meltzoff and Moore find?

Answer 22

babies expressions and gestures

more likley to mirror those of adults:

more than chance would predict so there was a significant association

Question 23

Interactional synchrony is important for the development of

Answer 23

caregiver- infant attachment

Question 24

What did Isabella et al observe

Answer 24

30 mums and babies

Question 25

What 2 things did Isabella et al researchers assess of the 30 mums and babies

Answer 25

the degree of synchrony

and

the quality of the baby mother attachment

Question 26

What did Isabella et al find

Answer 26

high levels of syn chrony associated with better quality mother - baby attachment

Question 27

strength 0 filmed obsv / high control

Answer 27

caregiver-infant interactions are usually filmed in a laboratory

means that other activity, that might distract a baby, can be controlled

and

observations can be recorded and analysed later

therefore it’s unlikely that researchers will miss seeing key behaviours

more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations

babies don’t know they’re being observed, so their behaviour doesn’t change in response to observation

therefore data collected in such research should have good relativity and validity

Question 28

limtiation - hard to interpret babies behaviour

Answer 28

hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour

movement being observed are just small hand movements or subtle changes in expression

e.g. it’s difficult to be sure whether a baby is smiling or just passing wind

also difficult to known what is taking place from the baby’s perspective

e.g. we cannot know whether a hand twitch is random or triggered by something the caregiver has done

can’t be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning

Question 29

limitation - observing behaviour dont tell us its developmental importance

Answer 29

simply observing a behaviour doesn’t tell us its developmental importance

Feldman points out that ideas like synchrony simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours

these are robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed but they still may not be particularly useful in understanding child development as it doesn’t tell use the purpose of the these behaviours

can’t be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child’s development