Caregiver- Infant Interactions Flashcards
What is attachment
-Attachment is a strong, enduring and reciprocal bond between two people. (1 mark)
-Attachment is particularly strong between an infant and caregiver. (1 mark)
According to Maccoby (1980) what are the 3 behaviours that indicate an attachment has beenformed
-Proximity seeking (closeness)
-Separation anxiety (Infant is distressed when separated)
-Secure base behaviour (will be happy to explore when caregiver is present)
Caregiver
-Any person who is providing care for the child (parent,grandparent, childminder)
The mother is the primary caregiver in most research
Interactional synchrony
-Caregiver and child mirror what the other is doing in terms of their facial and boy movement (in a synchronised way)
(Copying, mirroring, in time)
Reciprocity
-When the actions of one person elicits a similar response from another
(Communication) (turntaking)
Caregiverese
-Adults who interact with infants use a modified form of vocal language that is heightened, which aids communication between carer and infant
Brazelton (1979) still face experiment (reciprocity)
-In the experiment, a mother or caregiver interacts normally with their baby, engaging in playful and responsive communication. Then, the caregiver suddenly adopts a “still face”—remaining expressionless and unresponsive.
-The infant typically reacts with confusion, distress, and attempts to re-engage the caregiver, showing the importance of social interaction for emotional development.
How does Brazeltons study demonstrate the importance of reciprocity
-This demonstrates that early reciprocity between the infant and caregiver is essential, showing how infants rely on responsive interactions for their emotional wellbeing and the importance of it for baby’s later communication and development
Describe Meltzoff and Moore’s study (1977) investigating interactional synchrony
-Aim: To investigate the age at which interactional synchrony occurs between mother and child
-Method: They videotaped 12-21 day old baby’s as they watched an adult experimenter perform different facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures
-Findings: The child’s response was filmed and identified by independent observers. They observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old
Evaluation of research into caregiver-infant interactions
-Usually filmed in a lab setting (+ and -)
-Difficult to interpret a baby’s behaviour
-Simply observing a behaviour does not tell us its developmental importance (coincidence or intentional)
Strength of research in lab settings
-It is easier for researchers to control extraneous variables in lab settings that may affect the validity of the results and so they tend to have a high validity. Furthermore, demand characteristics are not likely to occur as babies do not have a conscious awareness to change their behaviour when in the lab setting.
-Altogether, this gives caregiver-infant research more scientific credibility.
Strengths of videotaping caregiver-infant interaction research
-Research also often involves videotaping, and so researchers can rewatch the footage, allowing them to analyse micro sequencing of interactions in detail and capture subtle behaviours that may have been missed previously in real time observation.
Limitations of lab experiments
-However, lab experiments often lack external validity as they are artificial environments and so this could effect caregivers behaviour, affecting the credibility of these findings
Why is it difficult to interpret a baby’s behaviour
-It’s difficult to interpret a baby’s behaviour due to practical issues. Infants have unpredicted sleep and feeding schedules, meaning that researchers must work around these factors, which can make data collection inconsistent. For example, babies at 2 weeks old sleep for around 14-17 hours per day.
-Furthermore, babies cannot follow instructions or provide verbal feedback and so researchers must solely rely on observable behaviour, which is often open to misinterpretation.
Why may it be difficult to achieve a sample of 2 week old babies
-Parents are adapting at this time to parenthood still (sleep deprived etc) and so the majority will not want to participate so soon after.
Why is i difficult to assess when an infants behaviour is intentional or a coincidence
-Babies have limited ways of expressing themselves and actions such as smiling, reaching out, or making facial expressions etc may not be an intentional response to their caregiver, but rather coincidental reflexes. For example, babies often smile when ‘passing wind’ and so this may be mistaken for them copying.
-Infants cannot verbally communicate their thoughts or intentions to people as adults do and so researchers must draw inferences based on their observations. This means that findings may be subject to bias, compromising their validity.
