attachment -> caregiver-infant interactions Flashcards
What is attachment?
A close two-way emotional bond between two individuals who see each other as essential for their own emotional security
How long do attachments take to develop?
A few months
What are the two-way caregiver-infant interactions that show the strength of bonds?
Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony
What are the attachment behaviours?
- Proximity: Infants try to stay physically close to those they are attached to
- Separation distress: infants are distressed when an attachment figure leaves
- Secure base behaviour: infants explore the environment but return to the attachment figure for comfort
What is reciprocity?
A description of how two people interact and is a mutual turn-taking form of interaction
How is caregiver-infant interaction reciprocal?
The infant and caregiver respond to each other’s signals and each reciprocate a response from each other
What are two examples of reciprocity?
- Alert phases
- Active involvement
What are alert phases?
- Babies have alert phases and signal they are ready for interaction
- Mothers typically pick up and respond to alertness 2/3 of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007) although this varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress (Finegood et. al 2016)
From when do alert phase interactions become frequent and according to who?
From around 3 months, according to Feldman (2007), reciprocity increases in frequency as the infant and caregiver pay increasing attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions
What is active involvement?
Babies as well as caregivers take on quite an active role as both take turns in initiating interactions
Who described reciprocity as a kind of ‘dance’?
Brezelton et.al (1975) described the interaction as a ‘dance’ because when a couple dance together they each respond to one another’s movements and rhythm
What is interactional synchrony?
A simultaneous interaction where the caregiver and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way
What phrase by who defines interactional synchrony?
‘The temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour’ (Feldman 2007)
Who did research into the beginning of synchrony?
Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
What was the aim of the research into interactional synchrony?
To examine interactional synchrony in infants
What did research into interactional synchrony observe?
- Used a controlled observation to observe the beginning of interactional synchrony with babies as young as two weeks old
- An adult model displayed one of three facial expressions or a hand gesture
- The child’s response was filmed
What were the results of research into interactional synchrony?
The babies’ expression and gestures were likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict if there was a significant association
- there was a clear association between the infant’s behaviour and that of the adult model
What is the conclusion of research into interactional synchrony?
These findings suggest that interactional synchrony is innate and reduces the strength of the claim that imitative behaviour is learned
Who did research into the importance of interactional synchrony for attachment?
Russell Isabella et. al (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony and quality of the mother-baby attachment
What did research into the importance of interactional synchrony for attachment find?
Found high levels of synchrony were associated with better mother-baby attachment
Evaluation: Filmed observations -> strength
- They are usually filmed in a laboratory
- Means that other activity that might distract a baby, can be controlled, increasing internal validity
- Therefore, this ensures that the very fine details of behaviour can be recorded and later analysed, capturing the micro-sequences of interaction
- Furthermore, having filmed interactions means that more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations
- Babies don’t know they are being observed so their behaviour doesn’t change in response to the observation
- This high control of infant studies indicate high internal validity
Evaluation: Difficulty observing babies -> limitation
- It is hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour so it is difficult to know the meaning of their interactions
- Young babies lack coordination of much of their bodies are almost immobile
- The movements being observed are just small hand movements or subtle exchanges in expression
- e.g. cannot know whether a movement such as a hand twitch is random or triggered by something the caregiver has done
- Means they cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning
- Much of research depends on inferences which are considered unscientific
Evaluation: Social sensitivity -> limitation
- It could be considered unethical as it is socially sensitive
- Isabella (1989) found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant interaction
- suggests that mothers should not return to work shortly after giving birth or may be considered a ‘bad mother’ or alternatively may be made to feel guilty for returning to work
- as they cannot develop a high level of interactional synchrony with their child
- means some women may find their life choices criticised
