Attachment- Caregiver- Infant Reactions

Question 1

What is reciprocity?

Answer 1

Reciprocity is the mother and infants reciprocal interactions. Each respond to the others signals and elicit a response.

Question 2

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 2

When mother and an infant reflect one another actions and emotions in a coordinated and synchronised way.

Question 3

Research for reciprocity

Answer 3

Feldmann (2007)
Found that infants have an ‘alert phase’ in which mothers begin to respond to their signals as the infant is ready for interaction

Question 4

Research for intersectional synchrony

Answer 4

Meltzoff and Moore
Looked at infants from 3 weeks old and their mother gave 3 facial expressions and gestures and the infants respond was recorded. They found the action (response) of the infant was associated with the expression/gesture given by the mother

Question 5

Further research for interactional synchrony

Answer 5

Isabella
Studied 30 mothers and their infants and their degree of synchrony . Research also measure the quality of attachment. They found that the greater the infant-mother attachment the higher the levels of synchrony were.

Question 6

Evaluation for caregiver-infant reactions

Answer 6

1. Observations allow fine detail to be picked up. Usually filmed, the recording captures all angles and allows the research to analysed in detail. Also the infants behaviour does not change in the observation situation as they aren’t aware and do not understand. This increases the validity.
2. It is hard to put reasoning on the babies expressions and actions. It is merely observing change in movement rather than having a perspective from the infant
3. Observations don’t tell us the purpose of the synchrony and reciprocity. Feldmann suggests that it is merely a description of behaviour and not a purpose explanations