Attachment - Key Terms Flashcards
Define ‘attachment’…
A strong emotional bond between two individuals where each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.
What is reciprocity?
The action of the infant elicits a response from the primary attatchment figure.
What is interactional synchrony?
The infant mirrors the actions of another person.
Who studied and proposed the idea of reciprocity?
Murray and Trevarthen.
Who studied and proposed the idea of interactional synchrony?
Meltzoff and Moore.
Give an advantage of studies into infant-caregiver attachments.
Advantages:
✔ Controlled observations - no Hawthorne effect - infants don’t care they are being observed.
✔ Practical applications- Crotwell et al created a short therapy that improved interactions synchrony.
Give a disadvantage of studies into infant-caregiver reactions.
Disadvantages:
❌ Difficult to distinguish between general activity and specifically imitated behaviour - infants are constantly performing the same actions.
❌ Interactional synchrony is culturally relative - La Vine - Kenyan mothers have little interaction yet still produce secure attachments.
