care giver infant interactions Flashcards
When does reciprocity begin?
Around 3 months
How do mothers and babies interact at 3 months?
Increasingly frequent
Close attention to verbal signals and facial expressions
What is reciprocity?
Respond to each other’s signals, eliciting a response from the other
How did Brazleton describe reciprocity?
A dance
Baby and mother are active
What is interactional synchrony?
Mother and infant reflect actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated way
Who researched interactional synchrony?
Meltzoff and Moore
Isabella
Describe Meltzoff and Moore’s research
Observed IS in infants
Adult displayed facial expression or gesture
Child’s response filmed
Response identified by observer
Association between expression/gesture and action of baby
Describe Isabella’s research
30 mothers and infants
Assessed degree of interactional synchrony
Assessed quality of mother infant attachment
High levels of synchrony associated with better quality attachment
What is interactional synchrony important for?
Development of mother infant attachment
Evaluation - it is hard to know what is happening when observing infants
Observing hand movements or changes in expression
Difficult to be sure what is happening
Conscious and deliberate?
Evaluation - controlled observations capture fine detail
Mother and infant filmed from multiple angles
Fine details recorded and analysed
Babies don’t care about observers
Good validity
Evaluation - observations don’t tell us purpose of synchrony and reciprocity
Feldman - synchrony describes behaviour
Don’t know purpose
Evaluation - socially sensitive research: working mothers
Child disadvantaged by certain child rearing practices
Mothers who return to work quickly restrict IS
Suggests mothers shouldn’t work
