Attachment - caregiver-infant interactions

Question 1

What is reciprocity?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 2

Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way

Question 3

What are alert phases?

Answer 3

Periodic phases babies have in which they signal that they are ready for a spell of interaction

Question 4

What did research by Feldman and Eidelman (2007) show?

Answer 4

That mothers typically pick up and respond to their baby’s alertness around 2/3 of the time

Question 5

What did research by Finegood (2016) show?

Answer 5

That the mother’s alertness varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress

Question 6

What did research by Feldman (2007) show?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What do babies as well as caregivers take on?

Answer 7

An active role

Question 8

What did research by Brazelton (1975) show?

Answer 8

That the interaction between the baby and caregiver is like a dance as each partner responds to the other partner’s moves

Question 9

What was Meltzoff and Moore’s research?

Answer 9

Synchrony begins

Question 10

What did research by Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observe?

Answer 10

The beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old

Question 11

What happened in Meltzoff and Moore’s research of synchrony begins?

Answer 11

an adult made one of 3 gestures or expressions to a baby

baby’s response was filmed and labelled by independent observers

Question 12

What was the result of Meltzoff and Moore’s research of synchrony begins?

Answer 12

Babies’ expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of adults more than chance will predict

Question 13

What was Isabella (1989) research?

Answer 13

Importance of attachment

Question 14

What did research by Isabella (1989) observe?

Answer 14

30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony

Question 15

What was the result of Isabella’s research of the importance of attachment?

Answer 15

Found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment

Question 16

What is one strength of caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 16

Filmed observations

Question 17

What is the evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions having filmed observations?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

What is one limitation of caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 18

Difficulty observing babies

Question 19

What is the evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions being difficult observing babies?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What is another limitation of caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 20

Developmental importance

Question 21

What is the evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions having developmental importance?

Answer 21

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