Caregiver-infant interactions Flashcards
What is an attachment?
A reciprocal bond between two people who desire to be in close proximity to one another.
What does reciprocity mean?
Giving some sort of response to each other. Turn taking.
What have studies into reciprocity shown?
When the caregiver does not reciprocate, the infant shows distress and tries to elicit a response.
What is interactional synchrony?
The interaction happens at exactly the same time, they mirror each others behaviour
Evaluate caregiver-infant interactions in humans.
+It is easily replicable because of the methodology used.
There are no demand characteristics from infants because they have no social desirability bias. The research has good control.
-We don’t know why the infant is doing certain actions.
It is difficult to distinguish between general activity and specific imitative behaviour.
+There are real life applications to the formation of high quality attachments.
Could lead to valuable methods of improving people’s parenting skills.