Caregiver Infant Interactions

Question 1

attachment

Answer 1

• attachment is the emotional bond between two people
• it is a two-way process that endures over time

Question 2

reciprocity

Answer 2

• aka turn taking
• two-way, mutual process
• where each part responds to the other’s signals to sustain interaction
• behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other

Question 3

interational synchrony

Answer 3

• when adults + babies respond in time to sustain communication
• the caregiver + infant interact in such a way
• that their actions + emotions mirror each other

Question 4

ads of caregiver interactions

Answer 4

• innate
• reciprocity
• puppet

Question 5

disads of caregiver interactions

Answer 5

• inferences
• deliberate?

Question 6

innate - ads of caregiver interactions

Answer 6

• interactional synchrony has been demonstrated in several studies
• two psychs found that infants as young as 3 days old were displaying this behaviour
• suggests that the imitation behaviours are not learnt, but are innate

Question 7

reciprocity - ads of caregiver interactions

Answer 7

• two psychs got mothers to interact w/ their babies over a video monitor
• in the next part of the study, the babies were played a tape of their mother
  = so she wasn’t responding to them
• the babies tried to attract their mother’s attention
• but when this failed, they gave up responding
  = shows that babies want their mothers to reciprocate

Question 8

puppet - ads of caregiver interactions

Answer 8

• two psychs observed infant behaviour
• when interacting w/ a puppet that looked like a human mouth opening + closing
• infant’s made little response to this
  = shows they’re not just imitating what they see
  = interactional synchrony is a specific social response

Question 9

inference - disads of caregiver interactions

Answer 9

• babies can’t communicate
• so psychs are relying on their inferences
• they can’t be sure that infants are actually trying to communicate

Question 10

deliberate? - disads of caregiver interactions

Answer 10

• the expressions tested
• tongue sticking out, yawning, smiling
• are ones that infants frequently make so they may not have been deliberately imitating what they saw

Question 11

difficulties investigating caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 11

• setting
• observational
• limited working periods
• ethical issues

Question 12

setting - difficulties investigating caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 12

• studies found that babies’ attachment behaviours are much stronger in a lab setting than in a home environment
• therefore studies should take place in a natural setting
  = increase validity

Question 13

observational - difficulties investigating caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 13

• most studies into caregiver-infant interactions are observational
  = may be bias in the observer’s interpretation of what they see
  = observer bias
• this can be countered by using more than one observer
  = inter-rater reliability

Question 14

limited working periods - difficulties investigating caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 14

• there are practical applications when investigating
• infants are often asleep or feeding when psychs want to observe them
• researchers need to use fewer but shorter observation periods
  = cus of babies limited waking periods

Question 15

ethical issues - difficulties investigating caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 15

• extra care needs to be taken in relation to ethics when investigating
• so as to not affect the child or parent in any way
• e.g. protection from harm, confidentiality etc..