Attachment: Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony

Question 1

what’s reciprocity?

Answer 1

it’s a two way bond - the child has to bonds with the mother and vice versa for an attachment to be successful. they must both be able to contribute to the relationship and generate a response.

Question 2

what was Brazleton’s research?

Answer 2

he found that children as young as 2 weeks old could attempt to copy their caregiver, who in turn responses to the child’s signals 2/3 times. reciprocity is important in teaching the child to communicate and allow parents to take better care of their children as they can detect certain cues sooner.

Question 3

what’s interactional sychrony?

Answer 3

when the infant and primary caregiver become synchronised in their interactions. Condon + Sander said children can synchronise movements with the sound of an adult’s voice. the way they interact depends on rhythm, pitch, volume of the adult’s speech.

Question 4

how does research into caregiver interaction use controlled observations?

Answer 4

Brazleton filmed the interactions from different angles to ensure high levels of detail and accuracy in the observations and valid conclusions can be drawn because inter-rater reliability can be established - they can rewatch the tapes and compare findings.

Question 5

what’s a limitation of caregiver interaction? (A03)

Answer 5

it’s hard to know with young children whether their actions are meaningful, especially as children as young as 2 weeks old have little to no motor coordination. Brenner drew distinctions behavioural response and understanding. even if it appears to be reciprocal, the child may not understand the purpose