Caregiver - Infant Interactions

Question 1

Two way emotional bond

Answer 1

. Infants can shape bond
Social Releasers = innate behaviours shown by infant that lead to caregiver response

Question 2

Reciprocity

Answer 2

Copying and taking turns
. Behaviour matched during an interaction, develops simplest form at very early age
. Feldman = reciprocity can be seen in interactions from 3 months of age

Question 3

Interactional Synchrony

Answer 3

Parents speech and infants behaviour become finely synchronised so they are in direct response to one another
Feldman = serves critical role in developmental outcomes in terms of self regulation and empathy

Question 4

Interactional Synchrony research
(Isabella and Belsky)

Answer 4

Hypothesised = caregiver - baby pairs developed secure attachment would display more tuned behaviour than babies with insecure ones
. Observed 3 and 9 month olds - secure group interacted well - timed manner

. Caregiver baby pairs classed as insecure were characterised by interactions that were minimally involved

. Concluded different interactional behaviours predicted attachment quality

Question 5

Reciprocity (A03)

Answer 5

Meltzoff and Moore = demonstrated that babies as young as 12- 27 days would attempt to imitate facial and physical gestures

Question 6

Interactional Synchrony research
(Brazelton et al)

Answer 6

. Identified trends in mother - baby interactions
. Videotapes of 12 mother - baby pairs play behaviour was examined up to 5 months of age, revealed 3 phases of play
- Attention and build up
- Recovery
- Turning Away
^ repeated at regular intervals over the 7 minute footage

. Concluded that the 3 phases of play demonstrate the early signs of organised behaviour (interactional synchrony)