caregiver-infant interactions Flashcards
what is attachment
attachment is a strong emotional and reciprocal bond between two people, especially an infant and its caregiver(s)
Signs of attachment
- seeking proximity
- distress in seperation
- joy on reunion
- orientation of behaviour towards each other
what is reciprocity
reciprocity is a caregiver-infant interaction.
It is a two way or mutual process - each party responds to the others signals to sustain the interaction (turn-taking)
An interaction is reciprocal when each person responds to the other and the behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other
tronik and brazelton’s still face experiment
the mother and infant had a reciprocal interaction
the mother then stopped reciprocating the infants signals
the infant repeated their previous signals to try to continue the interaction and began to be distressed and cry when it failed
what is interactional synchrony
interactional synchrony is when a caregiver and infant reflect the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated (synchronised) way
The mirror each other in terms of facial and body movement
This is different to reciprocity as in reciprocity the responses are necessarily similar.
meltzoff and moore’s study on interactional synchrony
an adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures
An association was found between the expression or gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the babies
In 1983 they demonstrated this in three day old babies which rules out the possibility this behaviour is learned and suggests it is therefore innate.
what did Meltzoff and Moore propose
the infant imitations were intentional.
Infants acquire an understanding of what other people are thinking and feeling. It is believed interactional synchrony is important for development of mother-infant attachments.
strength of research supporting caregiver-infant interactions
well controlled procedures with cameras recording both mother and infant from multiple angles.
Babies do not know or care that they are being observed and so reduces the risk of demand characteristics or social desirability bias as these are normally a problem for observational research. High internal validity.
Recording the interactions ensures that the details can be analysed later.
weakness of research on caregiver-infant interactions
reciprocity and interactional synchrony only describes the action that is occuring between the caregiver and infant, it does not explain why this happens or the purpose of these interactions.
