Caregiver-infant interactions Flashcards
What is reciprocity?
When a baby and mother elicit responses to each other. Also known as ‘turn taking’. For example, caregiver responds to baby’s smile by saying something which then elicits a response from the baby.
What are alert phases?
When babies signal (i.e make eye contact) that they are ready for a spell of interaction. Research shows mothers pick up one and respond 2/3rds of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007) - varies on skill of mother and external factors such as stress (Finegood 2016). Around 3 months interaction becomes frequent by both baby and mother paying close attention to verbal and facial signals.
What is the idea of active involvement?
Traditional views show babies in a passive role, receiving care from adult. However, both babies and adults can take an active role as they appear to take turns in doing so.
What is interactional synchrony?
It takes place when caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other.
When does interactional synchrony begin?
Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed interactional synchrony (IS) in babies as young as 2 weeks.
- Adult displayed 3 facial expressions/gestures
- Babies response filmed and labelled by independent observers
- Babies expression/gesture mirrored adult more than chance would predict (i.e there was a clear/significant association)
What is the importance for attachment?
Interactional synchrony is important in caregiver-infant attachment. Russel Isabella (1989) observed 30 babies and mothers interact and assessed the degree of synchrony. The researcher also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment. They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment.
What are the evaluation points?
Filmed Observations:
- filmed in lab
- controlled distractions
- inter-rater reliability (more than one observer can watch)
- babies don’t know they are being filmed so behaviour doesn’t change
Therefore, data has good reliability and validity
Difficult to observe babies:
- babies lack coordination
- so observing small movements are difficult
- hard to understand babies intention and what is taking place from their point of view (POV)
Therefore, we cannot know if a babies movement is triggered by the caregiver or is a random twitch. This means we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning
Developmental importance:
we cannot be sure if interaction synchrony and reciprocity have any value in a Childs development as the names are simply given to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours. They can be reliably observed but do not tell us the purpose.
Counterpoint:
Isabella’s study showed interactional synchrony predicted the development of a good quality attachment. This means that is it probably important in development
Practical value vs ethics:
- has practical application in parenting skills training
- but can be socially sensitive that if a mother returns to work too early then she may be potentially damaging their babies development
