ATTACHMENT- Caregiver-infant interactions in humans Flashcards
Explain and name the stage when animals are born
precocial - born at a fairly advanced stage of development
What is the name for a humans stage of birth?
altricial
Explain the humans stage of birth
Relatively early stage of development and so needs to form attachment bonds with adults who will protect and nurture them
What is attachment?
an enduring, two-way, emotional tie to a specific other person’
When is attachment seen to have developed?
When an infant shows stranger anxiety and separation protest
How are attachment bonds characterised?
An infants desire to keep close proximity to a particular individual and by the expression of distress if the infant is separated from that person
What are the ways in which communication between carer and infant occurs?
Mimicking
Reciprocity
Interactional synchrony
What is mimicking?
Infants have an innate ability to imitate carers’ facial expressions, which suggests it is a biological device to aid the formation of attachments
What is interactional synchrony ?
Infants move their bodies in tune with the rhythm of carers’ spoken language to create a kind of turn-taking, as seen with two-way vocal conversations.
Reinforce attachment bond
What is reciprocity?
Interactions between carers and infants result in mutual behaviour, with both parties being able to produce responses from each other, which also helps to fortify the attachment bond
Explain the research by Klaus and Kennell in 1976
Compared mothers who had extended physical contact with their babies lasting several hrs a day with mums who only had physical contact with their babies during feeding in the 3 days after birth.
1 month later the mums with the greater physical contact were found to cuddle their babies more and made greater eye contact compared with the mothers with lesser contact
Effects still noticeable years later
Suggests greater physical contact leads to stronger and closer bond formation
Explain Melzoff and Moore’s research
In 1977 they found that infants aged between 2 and 3 weeks tended to mimic adults’ specific facial expressions and hand movements.
Supports that infant mimicry is an innate ability to aid the formation of attachments especially if as it was subsequently seen in infants of less than 3 days old
Explain Papouseketals research in 1991
Found that the tendency to use a rising tone to show an infant that it was they turn in the interaction was cross cultural, as American, Chinese and German mothers all exhibited the behaviour
Suggests that ‘caregivers’ is an innate biological device to facilitate the formation of attachments
Explain Condon and Sander’s research in 1974
They analysed frame-by-frame video recording of infants’ movements to find they co-ordinated their actions in sequence with adults speech to form a turn taking conversation.
Supports the idea of interactional synchrony
Explain Isabella et al’s research in 1989
This future strengthened the notion of interactional synchrony reinforcing attachment bond, by finding that infants with secure attachments demonstrated more evidence of such behaviour during first year of life.
