Attachment - caregiver-infant interactions Flashcards
What is reciprocity?
A description of how 2 people interact. These interactions are reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby responds to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from one another
What is interactional synchrony?
Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way
What are alert phases?
Periodic phases babies have in which they signal that they are ready for a spell of interaction
What did research by Feldman and Eidelman (2007) show?
That mothers typically pick up and respond to their baby’s alertness around 2/3 of the time
What did research by Finegood (2016) show?
That the mother’s alertness varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress
What did research by Feldman (2007) show?
That from around 3 months the interaction tends to be increasingly frequent and involves both the mother and baby paying close attention to one another
What do babies as well as caregivers take on?
An active role
What did research by Brazelton (1975) show?
That the interaction between the baby and caregiver is like a dance as each partner responds to the other partner’s moves
What was Meltzoff and Moore’s research?
Synchrony begins
What did research by Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observe?
The beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old
What happened in Meltzoff and Moore’s research of synchrony begins?
an adult made one of 3 gestures or expressions to a baby
baby’s response was filmed and labelled by independent observers
What was the result of Meltzoff and Moore’s research of synchrony begins?
Babies’ expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of adults more than chance will predict
What was Isabella (1989) research?
Importance of attachment
What did research by Isabella (1989) observe?
30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony
What was the result of Isabella’s research of the importance of attachment?
Found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment
What is one strength of caregiver-infant interactions?
Filmed observations
What is the evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions having filmed observations?
P: Filmed in a lab
E: Observations can be analysed later so researchers won’t miss key behaviour
E: Can establish inter-rater reliability of observations
L: good reliablity and validity
What is one limitation of caregiver-infant interactions?
Difficulty observing babies
What is the evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions being difficult observing babies?
P: Hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour
E: The movement being observed are subtle hand movements or facial expressions
E: Difficult to determine what is happening from the baby’s perspective
L: Cannot guarantee a special meaning
What is another limitation of caregiver-infant interactions?
Developmental importance
What is the evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions having developmental importance?
P: Does not tell us its developmental importance
E: Feldman (2012)- ideas like synchrony simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver-infant interactions
E: doesn’t tell us the purpose of the behaviours
L: cannot be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important
