Caregiver-infant Interactions Flashcards
Intro
From the start babies have meaningful social interactions with their carers. Psychologis believe that these interactions have important functions for the child’s social development. In particular good quality early social interactions are associated with the successful development of attachments between babies and their caregiver(s).
Reciprocity-Alert phases -active involvement
From birth babies and their mothers (or other caregivers) spend a lot of time in intense and highly pleasurable interaction. An interaction is said to show reciprocity when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them. For example, a caregiver might respond to his baby’s smile by saying something and then this in turn elicits a response from his baby. This kind of reciprocal interaction is also sometimes called ‘turn. taking: It is an essential part of any conversation, otherwise people talk over each other.
Alert phases-Babies have periodic ‘alert phases’ in which they signal (e.g. making eye contact) that they are ready for a spell of interaction. Research shows that mothers typically pick up on and respond to their baby’s alertness around two-thirds of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007), although this varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress (Finegood et al. 2016).
From around three months this interaction tends to become increasingly frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions (Feldman 2007).
Active involvement -Traditional views of childhood have portrayed babies in a passive role, receiving care from an adult. However, it seems that babies as well as caregivers actually take quite an active role. Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so. T. Berry Brazelton et al. (1975) described this interaction as a ‘dance’ because it is just like a couple’s dance where each partner responds to the other person’s moves.
Interactional synchrony-synchrony begins-importance for attachment
You might have watched the sport of synchronised swimming in which pairs of swimmers perform the same actions in unison (see picture on facing page). Two people are said to be ‘synchronised when they carry out the same action simultaneously. Interactional synchrony can thus be defined as ‘the temporal co-ordination of micro- level social behaviour’ (Feldman 2007). It takes place when caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other.
Synchrony begins -Andrew Meltzoff and Keith Moore (1977) observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old. An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures. The baby’s response was filmed and labelled by independent observers. Babies’ expression and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict i.e. there was a significant association.
Importance for attachment -It is believed that 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 assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment. They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment (e.g. the emotional intensity of the relationship).
Evaluation-strength-filmed observations
One strength of the research on this topic is that caregiver-infant interactions are usually filmed in a laboratory.
This means that other activity, that might distract a baby, can be controlled. Also, using films means that observations can be recorded and analysed later. Therefore it is unlikely that researchers will miss seeing key behaviours. Furthermore having filmed interactions means that more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations. Finally, babies don’t know they are being observed, so their behaviour does not change in response to observation (this is generally the main problem for overt observations).
Therefore the data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity.
Evaluation-limitation-difficulty observing babies
One limitation of research into caregiver-infant interaction is that it is hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour.
Young babies lack co-ordination and much of their bodies are almost immobile. The movements being observed are just small hand movements or subtle changes in expression. It is difficult to be sure, for example, whether a baby is smiling or just passing wind. It is also difficult to determine what is taking place from the baby’s perspective. For example, we cannot know whether a movement such as a hand twitch is random or triggered by something the caregiver has done.
This means we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning.
Limitation-development importance
A further limitation is that simply observing a behaviour does not tell us its developmental importance.
Ruth Feldman (2012) points out that ideas like synchrony (and by implication reciprocity) simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours. These are robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed, but they still may not be particularly useful in understanding child development as it does not tell us the purpose of these behaviours.
This means that we cannot be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child’s development.
Counterpoint -There is evidence from other lines of research to suggest that early interactions are important. For example Isabella et al.
(1989) found that achievement of interactional synchrony predicted the development of a good quality attachment.
This means that, on balance, caregiver-infant interaction is probably important in development.
