caregiver and infant interactions

Question 1

what is attachment?

Answer 1

a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their emotional security.

Question 2

what are altricial animals

Answer 2

babies which are born at an early stage of development

Question 3

what are precocial animals?

Answer 3

animals born at an advanced stage of development

Question 4

what are short term benefits of attachment?

Answer 4

survival

Question 5

what are long term benefits of attachment?

Answer 5

emotional relationships. the first attachment is used as a template to form other relationships in the future.

Question 6

what is one key interaction between a caregiver and infant?

Answer 6

non-verbal communication. The more sensitive to each others signals, the deeper the relationship will be

Question 7

what is reciprocity?

Answer 7

where each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them during a turn taking conversation

Question 8

what are alert phases?

Answer 8

where an infant signals that they are ready for a spell of interaction

Question 9

one study which shows alert phases

Answer 9

(Feldman) where he found that around 3 months this interaction tends to be increasingly frequent and involves both mother and baby playing close attention to each others non verbal signals and facial expressions

Question 10

what is active involvement

Answer 10

where babies take a very active role in the relationship

Question 11

one study to show active involvement?

Answer 11

Brazelton et al (1975) describing turn taking as a dance where each partner responds to each others moves

Question 12

what is interactional synchrony?

Answer 12

where the mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and they do this in a coordinated way

Question 13

what did Meltzoff and More (1977) find

Answer 13

found an association was between the expression or gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the babies. meaning even babies can imitate adults

Question 14

supporting research for interactional synchrony?

Answer 14

Isabella et al (1989) where they assessed a degree of synchrony between 30 mothers and infants. They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment

Question 15

who made the “still face” study and what did it show us?

Answer 15

Tronick - that there must be a two way bond between the mother and baby else it is not rewarding and they will become distressed

Question 16

Name one study which shows imitation

Answer 16

Condon and Sander (1974) found babies co ordinated their actions in time with adult speech, taking turns to contribute to the conversations. They did this by analysing film recordings frame by frame.

Question 17

One strength of caregiver infant interactions

Answer 17

they are believed to facilitate the development and maintenance of attachment as they enable both the caregiver and the baby to have meaningful, rewarding, joyful and sustained interactions together through the adult managing to change their behaviour as a result of their babies social signals.

Question 18

another strength of caregiver infant interactions

Answer 18

this research has practical value in parenting skills training. For example, Rebecca Cotwell et al (2013) found that a 10 minute parent- child interaction therapy improved interactional synchrony in low-income mothers and pre school children.

Question 19

counter argument to practical value

Answer 19

On the other hand, research into caregiver infant interactions is socially sensitive because it can be used to argue that when a mother returns to work soon after having a baby, this may risk damaging their baby’s development.

Question 20

one weakness of caregiver infant interactions

Answer 20

One limitation of this explanation is that it is not found in all cultures. Le Vine et al (1994) reported that Kenyan mothers have little physical interactions or contact with their infants, but they still have a high proportion of secure attachments. Therefore, research may be ethnocentric and ignore how attachments are formed in other cultures which reduces validity