attachment- caregiver-infant interactions Flashcards
importance of early interactions
-babies and caregivers have intense and meaningful interactions
-QUALITY of interactions associated w/successful development of attachments
two types of interaction
-reciprocity= taking turns to respond
-interactional synchrony= simultanoeus imitation
reciprocity
-when baby and caregiver respond to and elicit responses from each other
example of reciprocity
-caregiver responds to baby’s smile by saying something then baby responds with sounds of pleasure
reciprocity: alert phases are times for interaction
-mothers successfully respond around 2/3s of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007)
-from around three months interaction becomes more intense and reciprocal
reciprocity: babies have active role
-traditional views see baby as passive role, receiving care from adult
-but seems baby is an active parctipant. both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and take turns to do so
interactional synchrony
-people said to be synchronised when carry out actions simultaneously
-formal definition- ‘the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour’ (Feldman 2007)
example of interactional synchrony
caregiver and baby mirror each others behaviour
beginnings of interactional synchrony
-Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed beginnings of IS in babies as young as two weeks old
-adults displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three gesture. filmed babies response
-babies expression and gestures more likely to mirror those of adults than chance would predict
importance of attachment
Isabella et al (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies to assess degree of synchrony
-assessed quality of mother-baby attachment
-found high levels of synchrony associated with better quality mother-baby attachment (e.g. emotional intensity of the relationship)
ao3 caregiver-infant interactions: filmed observations
-mother-baby interactions usually filmed from multiple angles. fine details of behaviour can be recorded an analysed later
-babies don’t know they’re being observed so behaviour doesn’t change in response to observation
-studies have good reliability and validity
ao3 caregiver-infant interactions: difficulty observing babies
-not very co-ordinated, hard to observe behaviour. small gestures and small changes in expression
-also hard to interpret meaning of babies’ movements (hand movement a response or a twitch)
-means cannot be certain particular interactions are meaningful
ao3 caregiver-infant interactions: difficulty inferring developmental importance
-Feldman (2012) synchrony (and reciprocity) simply describe behaviours that occur at same time
-robust phenomena as can be reliably observed but doesn’t tell us their purpose
-cannot be certain from observations that reciprocity and synchrony are important in development
CA of difficulty inferring developmental importance ao3 caregiver-infant interactions:
