caregiver infant interactions Flashcards
attachment definition
an emotional bond between two people.
Two-way process that ensures over time.
It leads to certain behaviours such as clinging and proximity-seeking, and serves the function of protecting an infant
Reciprocity
responding to the action with a similar action
where the actions of one partner elicit a response from the other partner
the responses are not necessarily similar
eg smiling
Reciprocity research
Jaffe et al: demonstrated reciprocity
Brazelton: suggested that basic rhythm is important precursor to later communications. Regularity of infants signals allows caregiver to anticipate behaviour and respond. Lays foundation for later attachments w inf and caregiver
Interactional synchrony
Interactional synchrony is when two people interact and tend to mirror what the other is doing in terms of their facial and body movements (including emotions and behaviors).
Interactional synchrony research
Meltzoff and Moore
Controlled observation
4 different stimuli (3 faces, 1 hand gesture)
Observed infants behaviour in response
Infants 2-3 weeks old
Observers watched videotapes in real time, slo mo and frame by frame
Video judged by independent observers who had no knowledge of what infant had just seen
Observers took note of all instances of infant tongue protusion and head movements using behavioural catergories:
-mouth opening
-termination of mouth opening
-tongue protrusion
-termination of tongue protusion
.The adult model displayed ⅓ facial expressions or hand gestures where the fingers moved in a sequence.
.A dummy was placed in the infant’s mouth to prevent any response in the initial display.
.After the display ,the dummy was removed and the child’s expression was filmed
=An association between the infant behaviour and the adult model was found.
=In a later study,they did the same study with infants only three days old.The fact that infants this young were displaying the behaviour ruled out the possibility that the imitation behaviours are learned.
AO3 ci interactions
lim: probs w testing inf beh
lim: failure to replicate
str: intentionality supported
str: value of research
lim: indiv diffs
lim ci nteractions: probs w testing inf beh
Difficulties in reliability in testing inf behaviour
Infants mouths are in fairly constant motion and the expressions taht are tested occur frequently (tongue out, yawn, smile)
Makes it difficult to distinguish between general activity and specific imitated behaviours
M&M: used indepdent observers to judge infants behaviour from video
= highlights difficulties in testing inf behaviour
= doubt ab findings of research
BUT also suggests ways of increasing internal validity of the data
lim ci nteractions: failure to replicate
Other studies have failed to replicate the findings of studies
EG: Koepke failed to replicate findings of M&M
EG: Marian failed to replicate findings of Murray and Trevarthen (study that backed M&M)
BUT M&M argued that Koepke failed bc it was less carefully controlled and Marian acknowledged failure to replicate might be bc of procedure
= findings were not replicated which questions the findings of the original studies but differences in methodology may account for this
str ci interactions: intentionality supported
Another method used to support inf behaviour was to observe how they respond to inanimate objects
Abravanel and DeYoung: observed inf behaviour when ‘interacting’ w two objects, one stimulating tongue movements and the other mouth opening/closing
Found that infants of median age 5-12 weeks made little response to these objects
= suggests that infants do not just imitate anything they see. it is a specific response to other humans
str ci interactions: value of research
Imitative behaviour forms the basis for social development
Meltzoff has developed a ‘like me’ hypothesis of inf development based off his research on IS:
1) connection between what inf sees and their imitation of this
2) infs assoc own acts and own underlying mental states
3) infs project own internal experiences onto others performing similar acts
As a result infants get an understanding of what people are thinking/feeling= ‘theory of mind’ which is fundamental for conducting social relationships
= research explains how children begin to understand what others think/feel and thus are able to conduct relationships
lim ci nteractions: indiv diffs
There are some variations between infants that affect interactional synchrony
Isabella at al: found that infants that were more strongly attached to the caregiver showed greater interactional synchrony.
