Caregiver - Infant Interactions

Question 1

what is attachment?

Answer 1

Attachment is a two way emotional bond between two people where each individual depends on the other for emotional security

Question 2

What is reciprocity.

Answer 2

Reciprocity is the two way emotional interaction where an infants emotions or signals elicits a response in another individual

Question 3

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 3

When a caregiver and infant reflect eachothers emotions and do this in a co - ordinated way.

Question 4

What psychologists support interactional synchrony?

Answer 4

Codon and Sander (1974) said that children and adults synchronise through voices

Question 5

What is a strength of care giver interactions?

Answer 5

Filmed in a laboratory in a controlled setting with Brazeleton using multiple camera angles which can easily be analysed later and replayed. This means that the experiments have good reliability and validity.

Question 6

What is a weakness of caregiver infant interactions? (O)

Answer 6

A weakness is that it is difficult to observe an infants behaviour as they have poor motor skills and are uncoordinated which means their behaviour can be misinterpreted easily

Question 7

What is another weakness of caregiver infant interactions (L)

Answer 7

It says nothing about developmental growth and synchrony and patterns does not tell us about infant growth or explain the importance or purpose of synchrony

Question 8

What are alert phases?

Answer 8

• babies have alert phases where they signal that they are ready for interaction. Research shows that mothers pick up on baby alertness around 2/3 of the time

Question 9

What is active involvement?

Answer 9

-Both caregivers and babys can initiate interactions and can appear to take turns to do so.

Question 10

When does synchrony begin?

Answer 10

• Meltzoff and Moore observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old
• An adult displayed one of three facial expressions and the babies response was filmed by observers
• the babies reflected the face of the adults

Question 11

What is the importance of attachment?

Answer 11

• Isabella observed 30 mothers and babies and assessed their synchrony
• She found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better mother - baby attachments