caregiver infant interactions Flashcards
define attachment.
an enduring two way emotional bond to a specific other person normally a parent and child.
shown through strange anxiety and separation protest.
briefly summarise caregiver-infant interactions.
from the start babies have meaningful social interactions with their carers. psychologists believe that these interactions have important functions for the childs social development. in particular good quality early social interactions are associated with the successful development of attachments between babies and their caregiver.
Briefly summarise reciprocity.
mutual, turn-taking interaction.
an interaction is said to show reciprocity when each person responds to the other persons signals and elicits a response from them.
this helps to facilitate attachment.
Give an example of reciprocity.
a caregiver might respond to his babies smile by saying something and then this in turn elicits a response from his baby.
What is an alert phase?
babies have ‘alert phases’ in which they signal (making eye contact) that they are ready for a spell of interaction.
research shows that mothers typically pick up on and respond to their babies alertness around two thirds of the time, although this varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress.
Outline research into alert phases - Feldman (2007)
from around three months this interaction tends to become increasingly frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each others verbal signals and facial expressions.
Summarise active involvement.
traditional views of childhood have portrayed babies in a passive role, receiving care from an adult.
however, it seems that babies as well as caregivers actually take quite an active role.
both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so.
Outline research into active involvement - Brazelton.
described this interaction as a ‘dance’ because it is just like a couples dance where each partner responds to the other persons moves.
Summarise international synchrony.
simultaneous interaction. act rhythmically.
matching, co-ordinated actions and emotions that mirror eachother.
Outline research into interactions synchrony - Meltzoff and Moore (1997)
observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old.
an adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures. the babies response was filmed and labelled by independent observers.
babies expression and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict (there was a significant association).
Outline research into international synchrony - Isabella (1989)
observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony.
the researchers also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment.
they found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment (the emotional intensity of the relationship).
Outline one strength of research into caregiver infant interactions.
usually filmed in a laboratory - means that other activity that might distract a baby can be controlled.
also, using films means that observations can be recorded and analysed later. therefore it is unlikely that researchers will miss seeing key behaviours.
furthermore having filmed interactions means that more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations.
finally, babies don’t know they are being observed so their behaviour does not change in response to observation. therefore good reliability and validity.
Outline a limitation of research into caregiver infant interactions - difficulty observing babies.
hard to interpret a babies behaviour - young babies lack co-ordination and much of their bodies are almost immobile.
movements being observed are just small hand movements or subtle changes in expression.
it is difficult to determine what is taking place from the babies perspective - we cannot know whether a movement such as a hand twitch is random or triggered by something the caregiver has done.
this means we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning.
Discuss the limitation of research into interactional synchrony - developmental importance.
observing a behaviour does not tell us its developmental importance.
feldman (2012) points out that ideas like synchrony simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours.
these are robust phenomena in the sense that 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.
this means that we cannot be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a childs development.
HOWEVER -
there is evidence from other lines of research to suggest that early interactions are important.
for example isabella (1989) found that achievement of interactional synchrony predicted the development of a good quality attachment.
this means that caregiver-infant interaction is probably important in development.
Discuss the debate of practical value vs ethics of research into caregiver infant interactions.
research into early caregiver-infant interaction has practical applications in parenting skills training. for example, crotwell (2013) found that a ten minute parent-child interaction therapy improved interactional synchrony in 20 low income mothers and their pre-school children.
HOWEVER -
research into caregiver-infant interaction is socially sensitive because it can be used to argue that when a mother returns to work soon after having a baby this may risk damaging their babies development.
