caregiver and infant interactions Flashcards
what is attachment?
a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their emotional security.
what are altricial animals
babies which are born at an early stage of development
what are precocial animals?
animals born at an advanced stage of development
what are short term benefits of attachment?
survival
what are long term benefits of attachment?
emotional relationships. the first attachment is used as a template to form other relationships in the future.
what is one key interaction between a caregiver and infant?
non-verbal communication. The more sensitive to each others signals, the deeper the relationship will be
what is reciprocity?
where each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them during a turn taking conversation
what are alert phases?
where an infant signals that they are ready for a spell of interaction
one study which shows alert phases
(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
what is active involvement
where babies take a very active role in the relationship
one study to show active involvement?
Brazelton et al (1975) describing turn taking as a dance where each partner responds to each others moves
what is interactional synchrony?
where the mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and they do this in a coordinated way
what did Meltzoff and More (1977) find
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
supporting research for interactional synchrony?
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
who made the “still face” study and what did it show us?
Tronick - that there must be a two way bond between the mother and baby else it is not rewarding and they will become distressed
Name one study which shows imitation
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.
One strength of caregiver infant interactions
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.
another strength of caregiver infant interactions
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.
counter argument to practical value
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.
one weakness of caregiver infant interactions
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
