Caregiver-infant human interactions

Question 1

Define attachement?

Answer 1

an emotional link between caregiver and infant (1)
each seek closeness feel secure in presence of attachement (1)
interactions between caregiver and an infant is when an attachement starts
responsiveness of caregiver to infants that has deep effect on child (1)

Question 2

How do psychologists recognise an infant has attachement?

Answer 2

1. proximity - ppl try stay physically close to those they are attached to
2. seperation distress - ppl are distressed when an attachement fugure leaves their presence
3. Secure base behaviour- We always ‘touch base’ with our AF regularly return to their attachment

Question 3

What plays a part in a childs social development?

Answer 3

early social interactions between infants and care givers

Question 4

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 4

(mirroring actions) Caregiver and infant respond in time to keep communication going. (1)
e.g infant smiles, caregiver smiles back at the same time.
(1)This type of communication ensures infant and caregivers emotions
and actions mirror each other’s.

Question 5

What did Meltzoff and Moore conduct?

Answer 5

controlled observation

• 40 two week old babies to measure caregiver and infant interactions
• adult displayed 1/3 facial expressions mouth opening tongue protrusion
• childs response was filmed and identified by an independant observer
• link found between c+i of facial expressions

Question 6

What is reciproctity?

Answer 6

two-way, mutual process where c+i take turns to respond to each other’s behaviours/ signals, to sustain interaction (1) (like a
conversation).
The behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other, E.g
child puts arms out to be held - caregiver picks up. (2)
👶🍼 ‘alert phases’ and signal when they are ready for interaction. Mothers
pick up and act on these signals 2/3rd of the time (Feldman and Eidelman).
Brazleton said both mother and baby initiate (start) the interaction and take it in
turns to do so. He called this the dance. He said it’s like when a couple dance together they respond to each other’s moves. (3 and 4 marks)

Question 7

Give one criticism of research into cargiver interactions

Answer 7

P- research lacks ecological validity
E- controlled environment such as controlled observations c+i filmed
E-difficult to generalise findings to real life cases infant may not behave as they do in 🌍 shy in unfamiliar environment
L- lowering external validity

D- some may argue babies are young and not notice change in environment wud not affect validity

Question 8

Give a second criticism of research into care giver interactions

Answer 8

P- prone to bias
E- as babies cannot speak, inferences must be drawn about their behaviour. E- This means that a psychologist may interpret this information in a way that fits their hypothesis, for example a baby may have wind but the psychologist may infer that this is a smile in response to their parents smile,
L- reducing the internal validity of the research in to caregiver-
infant interactions.
In order to minimise this, there should be two observers present to agree on the findings.

Question 9

Give a strength for caregiver interactions

Answer 9

P- controlled environments
E- researcher can be praised for having high control over extraneous variables
E- eg not having other adults in room during observations may distract 👶
L- cause and effect can be established
increasing internal validity

Question 10

What is the procedure of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

Answer 10

Longitudinal study on 60 working class newborn babies and their
mothers from Glasgow
The babies and mothers were visited at their own homes every month
for the first year of the baby’s life and again at 18 months
Observations and interviews (with mothers) were used.

Question 11

How can attachement be measured

Answer 11

Separation anxiety - assessed by the infant being left alone in a room, or
the researcher asking the mother how the infant reacts in this instance.

Stranger Anxiety - assessed by the researcher starting each home visit
by approaching the infant to see if this distressed the child.

Researchers asked the mothers questions such as who infants smiled at, whom they responded to etc.

Question 12

What are the 4 stages of attachement?

Answer 12

1. Asocial - 👶 behaviours to adults and inanimate objects are similar
2. Indiscriminate - 👶 show a preference to ppl over inanimate objects but usually do not show stranger or seperation anxiety
3. Specific - 👶 7months start to form attachements and show seperation and stranger anxiety when seperated 65% with mothers
4. Multiple - within 1month form a specific attachement 29% of children formed multiple attachements
   18months 75% children had attachement with father

Question 13

Give decriptive feautures of asocial

Answer 13

babies happier when in presence of other humans

baby’s behaviour non-human objects and humans quite similar

Question 14

Give descripitive feauture of Indiscriminate 2-7 months

Answer 14

babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult they usually do not show seperation or stranger anxiety

Question 15

Give descripitive feature of Specific

Answer 15

👶 7months start to display stranger anxiety and seperation anxiety when seperated from parent
biological mother

one who offers the most interaction and responds to 👶 signals the most

Question 16

Give descripitive features of multiple attachements

Answer 16

S&E’s study 29% children had multiple attachement within 1 month

18months 75% infants had an attachement with their father 👨‍👧

Question 17

Give one strength of Schaffer’s research

Answer 17

P - high ecological validity
E - observations carried out in families 🏡 👶 more relaxed at home
E - can generalise findings to real life surroundings behaviour likely to be represesitive of everyday interactions
L - increasing external validity

Question 18

Give a weakness of the research schaffers and emersons

Answer 18

P - social desirability as interviews used to gather information
E - mothers may have lied 🤥 abt child’s behaviour to be in best possible light
E - child is distressed when left the room even if they not
L - lacks internal validity

Question 19

Give a second weakness of research into attachement

Answer 19

P - culture bias
E - sample used in Glasgow 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
E - can’t generalise findings to collectivist cultures where families often work together and form multiple attachements
L - limiting external validity

Question 20

What was the aim for Grossmans research?

Answer 20

longitudinal study looking at both parents’ behaviour and its rs to the quality of childrens attachement into their teens

Question 21

What did Grossman find from his research?

Answer 21

quality of father’s play (interaction) with infants was related to the quality of children’s adolescents attachements

Question 22

What did Grossman conclude from his reaearch?

Answer 22

fathers have a different role in attachement one that is more to do with play and stimulation less to do w nurturing but important for childs wellbeing

Question 23

What was Field’s aim , method and procedure of his research into the role of the father

Answer 23

aim - to investigate role of the father
method - controlled observation

procedure - filmed 4 month old 👶 face to face interactions w primary caregiver mothers fathers and secondary caregiver fathers

Question 24

What was Fields findings?

Answer 24

Primary caregiver fathers spend more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers
behaviour seen to be more important in building attachement to an infant

Question 25

What conclusion can be drawn from Fields research

Answer 25

fathers can be more nurturing AF and take on traditionally maternal role
🔑 attachement rs is level of responsiveness not the gender of parent

Question 26

Give a positive on research into role of father

Answer 26

P - practical applications
E - Field states that responsiveness to the child’s needs not gender is most important when forming attachements can be used to advise parents
E - mothers pressured stay at home (stereotypical) fathers go to work

may not be best option economically as mother can earn more money
L - important in applied psych as parental anxiety can be reduced

Question 27

Give a potential criticism of research into role of father

Answer 27

P - Grossman found that fathers are secondary attachement figures had important and distinct role in childs development of play and stimulation
E - However other studies shown children gorwing up 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍👧families don’t develop diff from those in heterosexual fams
>suggest that father role not distinct

CP - argued that parents in 👩‍👧 simply addapt to accomadate role played by fathers
L - families can adapt w out having a father present

Question 28

Give a final evaluation point for role of father

Answer 28

P - fathers tend not to become primary AF could simply be result of traditional gender roles
E - on the other hand cud be female hormones oestrogen = high levels of nurturing therefore 👩‍🦰 biologically predisposed to be primary AF for children
L - therefore several explanations to consider when investigating role of father