ATTACHMENT-Caregiver -infant interactions Flashcards
What are the two types of caregiver-infant interactions?
-Reciprocity
-Interactional synchrony
Do babies have alert phases and signals when they are ready for interaction?
Yes
At what age does this interaction become more frequent and who suggested this?
-3 months
-Feldman (2007)
What two things do the infants pay close attention to?
-Facial expressions
-Verbal signals
Define reciprocity
Responding to the action of another with a similar action, where the actions of one elicit a response from the other
Define interactional synchrony
-When two people interact they tend to mirror each other in terms of facial and body movements
-This includes imitating emotions aswell as behaviours
What was the procedure of the Meltzolf and Moore study?
-Observed early signs of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old
-An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or distinctive gestures
-The child’s response was filmed and identified by independent researchers
What were the results of the Meltzolf and Moore study?
-An association was found between the expression/gesture displayed by the adult and the actions of the babies
Give 2 strengths of the Meltzolf and Moore study
-Tested in controlled conditions, judged by independent observers who had no knowledge of what the infant had just seen, increases the validity
-Not subjective as they were judged by independent observers so cannot be biased
Give 2 limitations of the Meltzolf and Moore study
-Infants’ behaviours are unreliable, they can have involuntary movements due to their reflexes but to reduce any inaccuracy the experiment was filmed so it could be analysed by an independent observer
-Findings have not been able to be replicated, a study by Koepke et al (1983) found that the infants could not distinguish between videotapes and live images which suggests they weren’t actually imitating the adult
-Individual differences- there are some variations between infants that affect interactional synchrony .Isabella at al(1989) found that infants that were more strongly attached to the caregiver showed greater interactional synchrony
What age do babies typically become attached to their mothers?
7 months
What did Grossman (2002) suggest?
The quality of children’s attachments was more important than the quantity of them
What kind of study did Grossman (2002) suggest
A longitudinal study (investigated both parent’s behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachment into their teenage years)
What did Feild (1978) do?
-Filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interaction with their priamary caregiver
-Primary caregiver fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and playing with infants than secondary caregivers
