Caregiver - infant interactions Flashcards
what is reciprocity
Reciprocity is where an infant responds to the actions of another person
what is interactional synchrony
Interactional synchrony is defined as the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour
when does interactional synchrony take place
it takes place when a caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other
what was Meltzoff and Moore’s study (1977)
they observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old
How was Meltzoff and Moore’s study produced
-Initially a pacifier was placed in the babies mouth to prevent any facial responces
-The dummy was then removed and the infant’s facial expressions were recorded on video and observations were noted by an independent observer
what did Meltzoff and Moore find from their study
they found that infants could mirror facial expressions and hand gestures
What are the strengths for this
-Is that this type of research is usually filmed in a laboratory setting and this means that other activity that could distract a baby can be controlled
- the data should have good reliability and validity as the babies did not know they were part of an experiment therefore their behaviour was not affected
what are limitations for this
-A limitation of caregiver-infants interaction is that it is hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour
-Observing behaviour does not tell you its developmental importance, you cannot be certain from observational behaviour alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a childs development
