Caregiver-Infant Interactions

Question 1

What is attachment?

Answer 1

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

Attachment takes a few months to develop

Question 2

What are human babies like at birth?

Answer 2

They are altricial- they are born at a relitavely early stage of development.

They need to form bonds with adults who will protect and nurture them.

Question 3

How do caregivers and infants interact?

Answer 3

Key interaction: Non verbal communication

• It is the manner in which each responds to the other that determines the strength and quality of the attatchment.
• So the more sensitive each person is to the others signals the deeper the relationship

Question 4

What are alert phases in reciprocity?

Answer 4

• Babies have periodic ‘alert phases’ in which they signal (e.g. making eye contact) that they are ready for a spell of interaction
• From around 3 months this interaction tends to become increasingly frequent

Question 5

When is an interaction reciporical?

Answer 5

• When both caregiver and baby respond to each others signals and each elicts a response from the other
• This is seen as a turn-taking non-verbal conversation

Question 6

How does interactional synchrony take place in infants?

Answer 6

• Infants move their bodies in synchrony with the physical movements of their carers.
• This serves to reinforce the attatchment bond
• When mother and child interact they tend to mirror what the other is doing in terms of their facial expressions and body movements
• This includes imitating emotions as well as behaviours

Question 7

What study did Meltzoff & Moore conduct?

Answer 7

• Conducted first systematic study of interactional synchrony & found that infants as young as 2-3 weeks old imitated specific facial & hand gestures.
• Study supports interactional synchrony

Question 8

What was the procedure of the Meltzoff and Moore study?

Answer 8

• The study was conducted using an adult model who displayed one of three facial expressions or hand movements where the fingers moved in a sequence.
• A dummy was placed in the infants mouth during the initial display to prevent any response in the inital display
• Following the display the dummy was removed & the childs expression was filmed

Question 9

What were Meltzoff and Moore’s findings?

Answer 9

• They found that there was an association between the infants behaviour and that of the adult model.

Question 10

What does ‘synchronised’ mean?

Answer 10

Carrying out the same action simultaneously

(Takes place when the moth and infant interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other)

Question 11

What is the difference between reciprocity and interactional synchrony?

Answer 11

Reciprocity: Where the mother and infant respond to each others signals & elicts a response from the other - It resembles turn taking
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Interactional synchrony: Where the mother and infant mirror both the actions & emotions of the other & they do this in a coordinated, synchronised way ( at the same time)

Question 12

What other supporting research is there for interactional synchrony?

Answer 12

Isabella et al (1989) observed 30 mothers & infants together & assesed the degree of synchrony

The researchers also assesed the quiality of mother-infant attatchment

They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality infant- mother attatchment–> ( the emotional intensity of the relationship)

Question 13

What is one strength of the research conducted on caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 13

OS: These interactions are usually filmed in a laboratory
* Meaning that other activity that may distract baby is controlled
* Using films also makes it easier for observations to be analysed later- therefore unlikely researchers will miss behaviour

• Babies also dont know they are being observed so behaviour wont change

Therefore data collected in research should have good relaiabiliy & validity

Question 14

What is one limitation in caregiver & infant interaction?

Answer 14

It is hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour
Young babies lack coordination & most of their bodies are immobile

e.g. we cannnot know whether a movement such as a hand twitch is random or triggered by something the caregiver has done

Question 15

Give another limitation of observing babies behaviour

Answer 15

Observing behaviour does not tell us its developmental importance
measruing a baby’s behaviour does not tell us the purpose of why the behaviours happened

Meaning we cannnot be certain that from observational research alone that reciprocity & synchrony are important for a childs development

Question 16

What is active involvement within reciprocity?

Answer 16

• Where instead of babies being passive infact both babies & caregivers take quite an active role in intitiating interactions.