Care Giver Infant Interactions

Question 1

Reciprocity

Answer 1

An interaction shows reciprocity if when each person responds to anothede and elicits a response from them
Alert phases- babies have periodic alert phases in which they signal that they are ready for interaction eg eye contact
Feldman and eidelman found that mother’s pick up on this 2/3ds of time
From around three months this interaction is increasingly frequent
Active involvement- both caregiver and babies can initiate interactions as the6 appear to take turns in doing so brazelton

Question 2

Interactional synchrony

Answer 2

The temporal co ordination of micro level social behaviour Feldman
Takes place when baby and caregiver interact in such a way that their face expressions and emotions mirror each other

Melzoff and Moore - adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures babies response filmed
Babies response more likely to mirror adults more than chance could predict
Isabella observed30 mother’s and babies together and assessed degree of synchrony high levels of synchrony associated with high levels of quality attachment

Question 3

Evaluation strengths

Answer 3

+ filmed in laboratory
Meaning that extraneous variables that could distract baby could be controlled
Can be watched later so could t miss any key details
More that one researcher can observe establishing inter rather reliability of observations

Question 4

Evaluation limitations

Answer 4

• difficult ti interpret babies behaviour
  Lack co ordination of bodies
  Difficult to determine what is taking place from a babies perspective hand movement coukd be unrelated to caregiver response
• Feldman points out that ideas like synchrony gave names ti patterns of observable caregiver may not be particularly useful in understanding development as doesn’t give purpose of behaviours and baby behaviours

Question 5

Role of the father

Answer 5

Schaffer and Emerson found that the attachment between caregiver and infant varied
A third of the children’s primary caregiver was their father, half was the mother the rest was grandparents or siblings
Meldrum found that those with secure attachment to mother more likely ti gain one with father too
Geiger suggested tgat a mother’s relationship is primarily nurturing and caring wheeeas fathers is based around play