Caregiver-infant Interactions

Question 1

Reciprocity

Answer 1

A description of how two people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.

Question 2

Interactional synchrony

Answer 2

Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way.

Question 3

Attachment

Answer 3

A close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.

Question 4

Proximity

Answer 4

Staying physically close

Question 5

Separation distress

Answer 5

Signs of anxiety when attachment figure leaves their presence.

Question 6

Secure-base behaviour

Answer 6

Even when we are independent of our attachment figure, we still make regular contact with them. Babies do this by returning to their parents on a regular basis when they are playing.

Question 7

Example of reciprocity

Answer 7

A baby smiles at its mother and the mother says something which in turn elicits a response from the bay.

Question 8

Alert Phrases

Answer 8

• Babies have periodic ‘alert phrases’ when they use eye contact (a signal) that they are ready for interaction.
• Feldman and Edelman (2007) found that mothers typically pick-up and respond to this alertness around 2/3 of the time.
• Finegood et al. (2016) found that this varied depending upon the mohter’s skill and external factors such as stress.
• From around 3 months this interaction becalmed increasingly frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each other’s verbal signs and facial expressions.

Question 9

Active Involvement

Answer 9

• Traditional view- babies are seen in a passive role, receiving care from adults. However, babies and caregivers take on an active role.
• Both can initiate interactions and appear to take turns in doing it.
• Brazelton et al. (1975) described this interaction as a ‘dance’- partner responds to the other’s moves.

Question 10

Interactional Synchrony

Answer 10

• people are said to be synchronised when they carry out the same action simultaneously.
• Feldman (2007) stated that interactional synchrony can be defined as “the temporal coordination of micro-level social behaviour”
• When a caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror each other.

Question 11

Synchrony begins

Answer 11

• Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed the beginnings of interactions synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old.
• An adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions and 1 of 3 distinctive gestures.
• The baby’s responses were filmed and labelled by an independent observer.
• Babies’ expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of adults.

Question 12

Important for attachment

Answer 12

• Interactional synchrony is important for the development of caregiver-infant attachment.
• Russell Isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony.
• The researchers also assess the quality of mother-baby attachment
• They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better mother-baby attachment (the emotional intensity of the relationship)

Question 13

Filmed Observations (evaluation)

Answer 13

• experiment can be controlled (no distractions)
• can be filmed and analysed later
• researchers won’t miss any key behaviour
• more than one observer can record data (establishing the inter-rate reliability of observations)
• babies don’t know they are being observed so their behaviour won’t change
• THEREFORE data should have a good reliability and validity

Question 14

Difficulty observing babies

Answer 14

• hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour
• small babies lack co-ordination and much of their bodies are immobile
• changes in expression could be subtle and hard to interpret
• observers can’t be sure whether what they’re observing is random or triggered by something the caregiver has done
• THEREFORE we can’t be sure that certain behaviour seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning

Question 15

Developmental importance (support)

Answer 15

• observation doesn’t tell us it’s developmental importance
• Ruth Feldman (2012) states that ideas like synchrony purely give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours
• can be reliable but might not be particularly useful
• THEREFORE we can’t be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child’s development

Question 16

Developmental importance (counterpoint)

Answer 16

• evidence from other lines of research suggests that early interactions are important
• Isabella et al (1989) found that achievement of interactional synchrony predicted the development of a good quality attachment
• this shows that caregiver-infant interaction is probably quite important in development

Question 17

Practical value vs ethics

Answer 17

• research into caregiver-infant interaction has a practical application in parenting skills training
• Cromwell et al (2013) found that a 10-minute Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) improved interactional synchrony in 20 low-income mothers and their pre-school children.
• However, research is socially sensitive because it is sued to argue that when a mother returns to work soon after having a baby this may risk damaging their baby’s development