caregiver-infant interaction

Question 1

AO1: reciprocity research

Answer 1

reciprocity- both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicit a response for the other

found from birth babies and their main caregiver spend a lot of time together in pleasurable interactions. Babies have alert phases and caregivers respond to their signals for interaction (crying)

the interaction is a dance, the infant and caregiver will respond to one another’s moves. Both take an active role and this lays the foundation for later attachment

Question 2

AO1: interactional synchrony

Answer 2

interactional synchrony- caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in co-ordination.

controlled observation where adult model would display facial expressions. Found there was an association between infant behaviour and the adult model, evidencing intentional interactions of synchrony

found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother baby attachment by observation

Question 3

AO3: limitation- research has failed to replicate findings

strength- other research wasn’t carefully controlled

Answer 3

P: other research has failed to replicate the findings
E: a researcher replicated the study and found that infants couldn’t distinguish live from videotaped interactions with mothers.
E: suggests the behaviour is due to chance
HOWEVER,
wasn’t carefully controlled in terms of the interaction, suggesting the results are low in internal validity. This means Meltzoff and Moore could be correct

Question 4

AO3: Limitation- infant behaviour is difficult to reliably test

strength- used independent assessors

Answer 4

P: behaviour is difficult to reliably test
E: as it is difficult to distinguish between general activity and specific imitated behaviours.
E: e.g. mouth moving
L: lowers the validity of the research into caregiver-infant interaction
HOWEVER,
they used independent assessors who watched the infant videos and made judgements on what was imitated or not. Increases the internal validity of research into caregiver-infant interactions

Question 5

AO3: limitations- only securely attached engage in interactional synchrony

Answer 5

P: only securely attached engage in interactional synchrony
E: Isabella found that the most securely attached, the greater the level of IS.
L: this shows the researches overlook individual differences when researching caregiver-infant interactions, specifically IS.

Question 6

AO3: strength- research support

Answer 6

P: research support
E: observed infant behaviour when interacting with simulating tongue movement and moving mouth simulator.
E: found they made little response to the object
L: shows they don’t just imitate and is a specific social response