caregiver-infant interactions

Question 1

attachment

Answer 1

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

Question 2

reciprocity

Answer 2

when each person responds to the other and gets a response from the

Question 3

reciprocity : alert phases

Answer 3

when babies are ready for social interaction

Question 4

reciprocity : Feldman (2007)

Answer 4

at about 3 months interactions get more frequent and there is close attention to verbal signs and facial expressions

Question 5

reciprocity : Brazelton et al (1975)

Answer 5

described the active role of babies in interactions as a dance

Question 6

reciprocity : Feldman & Eidelman (2007)

Answer 6

• suggests that mothers pick up on babies alertness around 2/3 of the time
• Finegood et al (2016)= said that it varies depending on the mother and external factors such as stress

Question 7

reciprocity : active involvement

Answer 7

• traditional views suggested that babies were passive and receiving care from an adult
• it seems that babies take an active role

Question 8

interactional synchrony

Answer 8

the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour (synchronise with each other)

Question 9

interactional synchrony: Meltzoff & Moore (1977)

Answer 9

• looked at how interactional synchrony begins as young as 2 weeks
• adults displayed one of the 3 facial expressions and 1 of 3 gestures to a baby

Question 10

interactional synchrony: Isabella et al (1989)

Answer 10

• observed 30 mothers and infants together assessing the degree of synchrony
• assessed the quality of mother-infant attachment
• found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachments

Question 11

AO3 - filmed observations (strength)

Answer 11

• well controlled procedures which are carried out in a lab so distractions are controlled
• filmed then analysed which means you can look at fine details of behaviour and nothing is missed
• can be analysed by more than 1 observer which establishes inter-observer reliability
• don’t know they’re being filmed which means behaviour doesn’t change which ensures good reliability and validity

Question 12

AO3 - difficulty observing babies (weakness)

Answer 12

• observing facial expressions, hand movements etc which makes its difficult to be certain the imitations are deliberate and not just random movements
• this means it is difficult to conclude that they have a meaning and are actually a demonstration reciprocity

Question 13

AO3 - developmental importance (weakness)

Answer 13

• observing a behaviour doesn’t tell us about how important it is in development
• Feldman (2012) = says that synchrony just names a behaviour but doesn’t explain it
• Means that we can’t be certain from observational research that reciprocity and interactional synchrony are important for development
• some suggest early interactions are important , e.g = isabella et al found that good caregiver-infant interactions predict good attachment

Question 14

AO3 - practical value (strength)

Answer 14

• has practical application in parental skills training
• Crowell et al = found that a 10 min parent-child interaction therapy improved interactional synchrony in 20 low-income mothers and preschool children

Question 15

AO3 - socially sensitive area - ethics (weakness)

Answer 15

• used to argue that mothers return to work to quickly which is said to risk damage to a babies development
• this can be used to shame low-income households