Care giver-infant interactions

Question 1

-One strength of research into caregiver
interactions is the methodology used.

Answer 1

-One strength of research into caregiver
interactions is the methodology used. -Observations of caregiver-infant interactions are generally well-controlled procedures, with both caregiver and infant being filmed, often from
multiple angles. This ensures that very fine details of behaviour can be recorded and later analysed. Furthermore, babies don’t know or care that they are being observed so their behaviour does not change in response to controlled observation (unlike adults), which is sometimes a problem for observational research. This suggests that research into infant caregiver interactions has good internal validity.
-however in care give interactions are socially sensitive topic and as a result of this caregiver may change their behaviour and be more interactive which lowers internal validity.

Question 2

Limitation of research into infant caregiver interactions- problems with testing infant behaviour

Answer 2

However, it is difficult to reliably testing
behaviour, infants’ mouths are in fairly constant motions (e.g. tongue sticking out, yawning,smiling) and the expressions that are tested occur frequently. This makes it difficult to
distinguish between general activity and specific imitated behaviour. In order to overcome these problems Meltzoff & Moore measured infant responses by filming infants and then asking an dependent observer to judge the infants’ behaviour from the video. The person doing the judging had no idea what behaviour was being imitated, which increased the internal validity of the data. This is a strength because Meltzoff & Moore removed the general problem of observer bias which can be a problem when testing infant behaviour.

Question 3

strength- practical application

Answer 3

The role of interactional synchrony in the formation of high quality attachment could have practical application that benefits society. Crotwell et al. (2013) found that a 10-minute Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) which included teaching mothers five skills, improved interactional synchrony in 20 low-income mothers and their pre-school infants compared to a control group. The mothers also used more child-directed techniques and their children were coded as offering their mothers toys more frequently. This suggest that research into interactional synchrony could lead to valuable methods for improving and developing mother-infant attachments (particularly in at-risk groups).