Attachment - Caregiver Infant Interactions Flashcards
What is attachment?
A strong, lasting emotional bond formed between a baby and their main caregiver.
What is separation anxiety?
When children become distressed when they are separated from their attachment figure.
What is safe base behaviour?
When children treat their caregiver as someone they can quickly return to whenever they’re scared or anxious.
What is stranger anxiety?
When children display distress in the presence of unfamiliar people and instead further company of their attachment figure.
What is reciprocity?
The infant and caregiver both take turns in an interaction so they are responding to each other’s actions. This strengthens the attachment bond.
What is interactional synchrony?
When caregivers an infant perform similar actions in time with one another this strengthens the attachment bond.
What was Isabella study on interactional synchrony?
Used frame by frame video analysis to make detailed observations of caregiver infant interactions. Found a positive coronation between interactional synchrony and the strength of the caregiver infant attachment. Support the interactional synchrony helps to strengthen attachments.
What was Meltzoff and Moores study on interactional synchrony? APFC
Aim: to investigate whether young babies imitate facial expressions and gestures
Procedure: they showed infants an adult model displaying one of three facial expressions or hand movements. The infants responses were recorded and later judged by independent observers.
Findings: showed the babies imitated the behaviour more often than expected by chance suggesting early imitation abilities .
Conclusion: interactional synchrony is an ability that plays a key role in early social development and caregiver infant bonding.
What are the four stages of attachments identified by Shaffer?
- Pre-attachment stage.
- Indiscriminate attachment stage.
- Discriminate attachment stage.
- Multiple attachment stage.
What is the pre-attachment stage?
0 to 3 months where babies don’t show a preference for anyone.
What is the indiscriminate attachment stage?
3 to 7 months where babies recognise and prefer familiar people but don’t have an attachment to one person.
What is the discriminate attachment stage?
7 to 9 months where babies develop a strong attachment to one person. High separation and strange anxiety.
What is multiple attachment stage?
Nine months onwards where children are able to form attachments with several people.
Explain Shaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment study
Aim: to investigate how babies develop attachments to their parents over time
Procedure: a longitudinal study using a naturalistic observation they followed 60 babies and their families from birth to 18 months, babies were observed in the presence of strangers to assess stranger anxiety when their caregivers were removed to assess separation anxiety.
Findings: babies formed stronger attachments if caregivers displayed higher sensitive responses. 87% of babies formed attachments with two or more caregivers. The main attachment figure wasn’t always the main caregiver.
