Caregiver Infant Interactions Flashcards
Attachment
Attachment is an emotional tie or bond between two people. The relationship is shared which means by two way.
What behaviors are shown in attachment?
Proximity seeking - people try to stay physically close to those whom they are attached to
Separation distress - people are upset when an attachment figure leaves their presence.
Secure base relationship - people tend to make regular contact with caregivers despite being independent. Infants show this when playing and returning back to their caregiver promoting security.
What has effects on the attachment formed?
The responsiveness of the caregiver to the infants signals that has profound effects on the attachment formed. This is also seen to be important for a child’s social development.
What is reciprocity ?
How to people interact. A form of caregiver interactions which involve mutual responsiveness . Both the infant and caregiver respond to each other signals and each elicit a response from each other. The actions displayed by the baby or caregiver do not need to be the same. e.g smiling.
Condon and sander - Research supporting the idea that infants display reciprocity.
What is interactional synchrony?
Where an infant mirrors the actions and emotions of their caregiver and vice versa. It is a direct response and occurs very quickly. The actions displayed by both infant and caregiver are the same and occur at the same time.
Meltzoff and Moore - supporting evidence for interactional synchrony
Difficulties investigating caregiver infant interactions:
- infants may be asleep during studies
- context affecting behavior = rather than doing it in an unnatural environment do it in a natural environment like a home instead of a clinical environment.
- approval may be needed from parents as participants are babies and therefore it can be seen as unethical
What is caregiver infant interaction?
The mutual exchanges between caregivers and infants that encourage and maintain attachment bonds.
What are some limitations of caregiver infant interactions?
(-) Le Vine et al., (1994) reported that Kenyan mothers have little physical contact or interactions with their infants as it is their culture that extended family members look after the baby in the first few months. However, Kenyan infants still show a high proportion of secure attachments to their mothers. This shows that caregiver- interactions may not be needed by biological parents to create an attachment and therefore may not be as important to attachment formation as some researchers suggest.
(-) It is hard to know what is happening when observing infants as they cannot articulate what they are thinking or feeling. Therefore, it is impossible for psychologists to tell whether the imitation or turn taking that is seen is conscious and deliberate. This means that the behaviours displayed by infants may not have any special meaning. As the reasoning behind the actions cannot be determined, research findings about both interactional synchrony and reciprocity lack validity.
What are some strengths of caregiver-infant interaction?
(+)The reliability of the research that is produced when studying caregiver-infant interactions is high. Observations such as Meltzoff and Moore’s study are generally well controlled procedures such as using a pacifier to ensure the infants all begin with the same facial expression, and often involve interactions being recorded. This means that the videos can be watched again by the same or other observers leading to test-retest and inter-observer reliability. This increases both the reliability and the validity of the research into caregiver-infant interactions.
(+) Research into caregiver-infant interactions has good validity. This is because the infants do not know
that they are being studied. This means that they are not able to change their behaviour to demonstrate reciprocity or interactional synchrony or deliberately choose not to display such behaviors. An infant’s behaviour will therefore be natural, so the internal validity of studies increases.j
