Attachment - caregiver-infant interactions Flashcards
What is reciprocity
A description of how two people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.
What is interactional Synchrony
Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way.
AO1: Reciprocity
Alert phases are times for interaction
Babies have an active role
Reciprocity is achieved when baby and caregiver respond to and elicit responses from each other
Alert phases are times for interaction - mothers successfully respond around 2/3 of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007)
Babies have an active role - According to traditional views of childhood, the baby plays a passive role and is cared for by an adult. Babies are active participants, both the caregiver and the baby can initiate interactions and take turns to do so
A01: interactions involve synchrony
Beginnings of interactional synchrony
Importance for attachment
People are said to be synchronised when they carry the same actions simultanelously
Beginnings of interactional synchrony - Meltzoff and Moore observed beginning of interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old.
Adults displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three gestures. Filmed by the baby’s response
Baby’s gestures and expressions more likely to mirror those of the adults
Importance for attachment - Isabella et al (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony
Also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment
Finding that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment (emotional intensity of the relationship)
A03: One strength of research on this topic is the use of filmed observations
Mother-baby interactions are usually filmed, often from multiple angles. Fine details of behaviour can be recorded and analysed later
Babies don’t know they are being observed, behaviour does not change in response to observation
Meaning the studies have good reliability
A03: One limitation for the research is the difficulty in observing babies
Hard to observe babies’ behaviour because they are not very co-ordinated. We observe the small gestures/ changes in expression
It is also hard to interpret the meaning of babies’ movements e.g if hand movements are a response to the caregiver or a random twitch
Meaning we cannot be certain that any particular interactions observed between baby and caregiver are meaningful
A03: One limitation is difficulty inferring development importance
Feldman points out that synchrony (and reciprocity) simply describes behaviours that occur at the same time
Robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed but this may not be useful (does not tell us their purpose)
Meaning that we cannot be certain from observations that reciprocity or synchrony are important in development
A03: Practical value versus ethics
Research into early interactions has allowed psychologists to improve the quality of caregiver-infant attachment (parent and child interaction therapy)
Research - socially sensitive, can be used to argue that mothers should focus just on interacting with their baby and not return to work
Meaning that the practical value may be outweighed by its negative social consequences
