Care-giver Infant Interactions Flashcards
What is an attachment?
Emotional tie or bond between 2 people, usually a primary caregiver and child,
Relationship is reciprocal (two way relationships) which endured over time.
What is reciprocity and it’s key feature?
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A description of how two people interact.
both infant and mother respond to each other’s signals and elicit a response from each other.
Reciprocity occurs when the infant and adult respond to each other’s actions with a similar action.
Turn-taking, for instance the adult will provide verbal communication and the baby will respond accordingly, say, by gurgling.
Each leave space for other to communicate.
Includes Mutual interest in conversation and both participating.
Or e.g smiling
What study provided evidence for reciprocity in infant-caregiver interaction?
Murray and Trevarthan
Describe Murray and Trevarthan’s study
The mother verbally communicates and interacts with the infant ‘turn-taking’ and then stops the interaction by adopting a frozen face.
The baby became distressed and cries and tried to draw the mother back into the conversation.
Demonstrates how the infant takes an active role in these interactions by deliberately interfering with the interactional turn taking.
What is interactional synchrony?
Key feature?
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5 e.g
Mother and infant reflect the actions and emotions of the other and do so in a coordinated way.
The mother and infant tend to mirror what the other is doing in terms of facial and body movements.
This includes imitating the emotions as well as behaviours.
Sequences of interactions between infant and child occur together (simultaneously - movements indistinguishable.)
E.g infant coordinates is emotions and movement with adult speech - reflecting the other in a synchronised way.
Building blocks of intersectional synchrony
Reciprocity and imitation
So that over time the adult and child appear as one and are perfectly in tune with one another.
What study provides evidence for imitation in infant-caregiver interaction?
Melzoff and Moore
Describe Melzoff and Moore’s study
Infants were presented with one of three facial expressions and one of three distinctive gestures
A dummy was placed in the infant’s mouth to prevent any movement before and during presentation
the dummy was removed and the child’s immediate response was recorded. Independent judges that rated the infant’s response for likeness to target behaviour
There was a significant association between the model’s expression or gesture and the action produced by the baby. The babies were able to closely imitate specific facial expressions or hand movements.
So use imitation - innately active role in internationals
Describe Isabella et al’s interactional synchrony study
(what is meant by quality of attachment)
Isabella et al observed 30 mothers with their infants
assessed the degree of interactional synchrony
assessed the quality of the mother-infant attachment.
They found that high levels of interactional synchrony were associated with better quality of attachment (e.g. The emotional intensity of the relationship)
What is Motherese/ modified language?
Who studied this.
modified language adults adopt when conversing with children,
It consists of raised tone, heightened enunciation of certain words and drawn out words,
Papousek et al
found that Chinese, German and American mothers tended to use a rising tone to signal the baby’s turn in the conversation,
Motherese, therefore, contributes to the effectiveness of interactional synchrony,
Overall evaluation of caregiver infant interactions in development of interactions.
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Strength - controlled observation - detailed
Limitation - Don’t know reasoning behind infant behaviour
Limitation - Socially sensitive research
Evaluation of caregiver infant interactions in development of interactions.
Strength - controlled observation - detailed
Studies done in lab experiments,
infant recorded by many angles recorded on camera and analysed later
- don’t miss any detail
Infants inward they’re being recorder
Usual issue with controlled observations -no demand characteristics
High validity of research
So increases scientific validity of care-giver infant interactions.
Evaluation of caregiver infant interactions in development of interactions.
Limitation - Don’t know reasoning behind infant behaviour
Patterns of behaviour can be identified of infants during social interactions
Reasonings behind them unknown as infants cannot explain
Based of inferences, don’t know if behaviours/actions are deliberate
- don’t know if behaviour actually does have a special meaning
(P- however Isabelle suggest Interactional synchrony is deliberate and has a purpose…)
Evaluation of caregiver infant interactions in development of interactions.
Limitation - Socially sensitive research
Research suggests that mothers need to spend more time with their children in order to achieve Interactional synchrony with child. Mothers feel guilty going to work leaving new born child. Also had economic implications as gender pay gaps increase as mothers cannot enter workforce
This negatively implicates a social group of people - working mothers.
What are the five signs of attachment?
Proximity seeking, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, response on re unis and secure base
