Caregiver-Infant Interactions Flashcards
What is reciprocity in caregiver-infant interactions?
A description of how two people interact, where both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals.
Define interactional synchrony.
Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated way.
What is an attachment?
A close, two-way bond between two people, essential for emotional security.
Takes a few months to develop in babies and is affected by caregiver responsiveness.
How can attachment be recognized?
Through proximity, separation distress, and secure base behavior.
- proximity involves staying close to the attachment figure
- separation distress is anxiety when they leave
- secure base behaviour is making regular contact when attachment figure
Why are meaningful interactions with caregivers important for children?
They are crucial for early social development and lead to successful attachment.
Good quality interactions foster a strong bond between baby and caregiver.
What does the alert phase in infants signify?
The baby signals that they want interaction through eye contact and/or noises.
What research contributes to the alert phase?
Feldman and Eidelman suggests mothers typically respond 2/3 of the time
- Finegood et al argue it varies depending on mothers’ experience and external factors
What happens from 3 months onward in caregiver-infant interactions?
Interactions become more frequent, with mutual attention to noises and facial expressions.
What does research suggest about the role of babies in reciprocity?
Babies take an active role
Both the baby and caregiver initiate interactions (2 way conversation) and take turns doing so.
Who defined interactional synchrony?
Feldman
defined as the temporal co-ordination of micro level social behaviour
- synchronisation occurs when 2 or more people carry out the same action at the same time
At what age does interactional synchrony begin?
As early as 2 months old.
Meltzoff and Moore found that babies significantly mirrored adults’ actions.
What did Isabella et al. study about synchrony?
Studied 30 mothers and babies measured synchrony and quality of mother-baby attachment
high synchrony = better attachment
What are strengths of caregiver-infant interaction research?
Filmed in a lab allowing control for distractions.
- Recorded interactions and analyzed later, unlikely to miss key behaviours
- more than 1 observer can record data and establish inter-rater reliability
- babies behaviour doesnt change when observed
What is a limitation of caregiver-infant interaction research?
Hard to interpret babies’ behaviors due to their uncoordinated and immobile nature.
Subtle expression changes can easily be missed, and movements may sometimes be random.
What’s another limitation of caregiver-infant interactions research?
Babies perspective is unknown
- Observing behaviours doesnt tell us how important theyre to development
- cannot use observations alone to tell us about the purpose of those behaviours
What practical value does Crotwell et al highlight?
10-minute parent-child interaction therapy improves interactional synchrony.
suggests that targeted interventions can enhance caregiver-infant interactions.
What ethical problem arises from caregiver-infant interactions?
Socially sensitive as it implies that mothers who return to work risk damaging their childs development
