caregiver-infant interactions

Question 1

define ‘attachment’

Answer 1

a close 2-way emotional bond between 2 individuals in which each person sees the other as essential for their own emotional security

Question 2

what is proximity?

Answer 2

when people try to stay physically close to their attachment figure

Question 3

what is separation distress?

Answer 3

people show signs of anxiety when an attachment figure leaves their presence

Question 4

when do babies display secure-base behaviour?

Answer 4

when they regularly return to their attachment figure while playing

Question 5

when does reciprocity occur?

Answer 5

when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them

Question 6

true or false?
babies have an active involvement in receiving care from an adult

Answer 6

true

Question 7

what is an alert phase?

Answer 7

when babies signal that they are ready for some interaction

Question 8

give an example of how a baby may display that they are ready for some interaction

Answer 8

making eye contact

Question 9

from what age do alert phases become more frequent?

Answer 9

3 months

Question 10

how often do mothers typically pick up on alert phases?

Answer 10

2/3 of the time

Question 11

when does interactional synchrony take place?

Answer 11

when caregiver + baby interact so that their actions/emotions mirror each other

Question 12

how else can interactional synchrony be defined?

Answer 12

temporal coordination of micro-level social behaviour

Question 13

what did isabella et. al research?

Answer 13

they observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony.
researchers also assessed quality of mother-baby attachment.

Question 14

what were isabella et. al’s findings?

Answer 14

they found that high levels of synchrony were associated with a better quality attachment

Question 15

what did meltzoff + moore research?

Answer 15

they observed interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old.
adult displayed 1/3 facial expressions/distinctive gestures.
baby’s response was filmed/labelled by independent observers.

Question 16

what were meltzoff + moore’s findings?

Answer 16

baby’s expression/ gesture was more likely to mirror those of the adults

Question 17

give 1 strength of this research

Answer 17

observations are filmed

Question 18

why are filmed observations reliable and valid?

Answer 18

observations can be recorded and analysed later.
more than one observer can record data (establish inter-rater reliability)

Question 19

why are babies difficult to observe?

Answer 19

it’s hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour.
there’s no way to know whether their actions are intentional as we can’t ask them.
lowers validity - don’t know if behaviours are deliberate or random

Question 20

give another weakness of this research

Answer 20

developmental importance of reciprocity and interactional synchrony.
these observations don’t tell us the developmental importance - we can’t be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and interactional synchrony are important for development.
we don’t know purpose of behaviours.