Caregiver-infant interactions Flashcards
what are caregiver-infant interactions
babies have meaningful social interactions with their carers
psychologists believe that these interactions have important functions in a child’s social development
good quality early social interactions are associated with the successful development of attachments between babies and their caregivers
describe reciprocity
an interaction is said to show reciprocity when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them
e.g., a caregiver might respond to their baby’s smile by saying something and then this in turn elicits a response from their baby
reciprocity is an essential part of any interaction/conversation
what are alert phases
babies have periodic alert phases where they signal, e.g., making eye contact, that they are ready for interaction
feldman and eidelman found that mothers pick up and respond to their baby’s alertness around 2/3 of the time, this varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress
from around 3 months this interaction tends to become increasingly frequent and involves both the mother and baby paying close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions
what is active involvement
babies, as well as caregivers, take quite an active role when interacting
they both can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so
brazelton et al. describes this interaction as a ‘dance’ because it is like a couple’s dance where each partner responds to the other’s dance moves
describe interactional synchrony
two people are said to be synchronised when they carry out the same action simultaneously
IS can be defined as the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour (feldman 2007)
takes place when caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other
how does synchrony begin
meltzoff and 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 distinctive gestures
the baby’s response was filmed and labelled by independent observers, found a significant association of babies’ expression and gestures mirroring those of the adults
why is interactional synchrony important for attachment
isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony and the quality of the mother-baby attachment
found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment
describe how caregiver-infant interactions are usually filmed in a laboratory (strength)
this means that any other activity, that might distract a baby, can be controlled
using films means that observations can be recorded and analysed later
it is unlikely that researchers will miss seeing key behaviours
filmed interactions means inter-rate reliability can be established
therefore, data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity
why is it difficult to observe babies (limitation)
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 correctly interpret a baby’s behaviour and determine what is taking place from their perspective
therefore, it is unclear whether the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning
why does observing a behaviour not inform us of its development importance (limitation)
feldman points out that ideas like synchrony and reciprocity simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours
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
therefore, we cannot be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child’s development
what evidence suggests that these early interactions are important (counterpoint)
isabella et al. (1989) found that achievement of interactional synchrony predicted the development of a good quality attachment
therefore, caregiver-infant interaction is probably important in development
