Caregiver-infant interaction Flashcards
What is attachment?
A close, mutual emotional relationship between two people (e.g. an infant and their caregiver).
- Each individual seeks closeness from the other and feels more secure in their presence.
Features of caregiver-infant interactions (Reciprocity)
- This is a two-way, mutual interaction between a caregiver and a child in which they take turns to respond to each others signals to sustain their interaction. E.g. a mother smiles and her baby smiles back.
Features of caregiver-infant interactions (Interactional Synchrony)
- This is a simultaneous sequence of movements between the child and their caregiver, where they respond perfectly in time with one another. E.g. baby moves her head in time with her mother.
Tronick- still face experiment (reciprocity)
- Face to face interaction between an infant (4 months) + their caregiver in three episodes:
a) Baseline= the parent plays with the baby without toys or picking up to the baby.
b) Still face= the parent shows a neutral face to the baby and is unresponsive.
c) Reunion= the parent resumes normal interaction.
- Conducted at home- infants alert and awake in a room with only the parent and experimenter present.
Tronicks findings
- Infants became distressed during the still faced episode= caused by a violation of the reciprocal social rule.
- The lack of response is confusing + contradicts their expectation of turn-taking in their interaction.
Evans + Porter
- Studied reciprocity, interactional synchrony + attachment quality in 101 American infants and their mothers for the first year after birth.
Evans + Porter experiment
- Under lab conditions, mother and baby pairs were videoed as they ‘play normally’ with toys in an observation room for 15 minutes when the baby was 6, 9 and 12 months old.
- The extent of reciprocity and degree of interactional synchrony were assessed.
- At 12 months the quality of mother- infant attachment was assessed using the strange situation.
- Babies judged to be securely attached according to the strange situation tended to be those who had the most reciprocal interactions and the most interactional synchrony.
Condon + Sander- interactional synchrony
- Investigated infant responses to adult speech and found that as early as the first day of their life, babies synchronise their movements with the sound of an adults voice.
Evaluation of research into caregiver-infant interactions (1)
- The use of controlled observations= capture micro-sequences of interaction.
- Replicability= asses the reliability of the infants responses to different interactions + draw conclusions about reciprocity, interactional synchrony and other interactions.
- The use of video recordings (Evans + Porter)= allows for inter-observer reliability to be assessed, and adds to the internal validity.
Evaluation of research into caregiver-infant interactions (2)
The issue of intentionality= psychologists rely on inference to draw conclusions about the motivation behind the responses because babies + infants cannot yet communicate- deliberate or conscious?
- Room for subjectivity= room for researcher bias (lowers internal validity).
Evaluation of research into caregiver-infant interactions (3)
The issue of social sensitivity + economic implications.
- Socially sensitive research findings.
- Study emphasises the importance of high levels of responsiveness from caregivers + puts pressure on mothers to spend more time at home with their babies, can make them feel guilty about going back to work (negative impact on economy).
Role of the father (AO1) pt.2
- However, whereas mothers usually adopt a more caregiving and nurturing role than fathers, fathers adopt a more play-mate role than mothers. For example, fathers are more likely than mothers to encourage risk-taking in their children by engaging them in physical games.
- Most infants prefer contact with their father when in a positive emotional state and wanting to play. In contrast most infants prefer contact with their mothers when they are in distress and need comfort.
Parent-infant attachment
- Traditionally= we thought attachment was mother-infant attachment.
- The attachment to the father was a secondary attachment later in life, and more of a play figure.
Schaffer & Emerson attachment study
- Found that the majority of babies did become attached to their mother first (around 7 months).
- Within a few weeks of this first attachment they formed secondary attachments with other family members and the father.
- In 75% of the infants studied an attachment was formed with the father by the age of 16 months.
- This was determined by the fact that the infants protested when their father walked away- a sign of attachment.
Role of the father (Grossman)
- Longitudinal study.
- Looking at both parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachment into their teens.
- Quality of infants attachment with mothers (but not fathers) was related to children’s attachments in adolescence, suggesting that father attachment was less important.
However…. - The quality of fathers play was related to the quality of adolescent attachments suggesting that fathers have a different role in attachment- one that is more to do with play + stimulation, and less to do with nurturing.
