Caregiver-infant interactions Flashcards
What is an attachment
Defined as a two way close emotional bond where both parties see each other as essential for their own emotional security
What are the three ways to recognise attachment
Proximity, separation distress and secure base behaviour
What is Proximity
How physically close you are
What is separation distress
How upset the bay gets when mum leaves
What is secure base behaviour
Using mum as a safe base when playing if anything is wrong, they run back to mum
What is interactional synchrony
When the mother and the child perform the same action at the same time
It takes place when caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror eachother
When did Meltzoff and Moore study interactional synchrony
1977
What did Meltzoff and Moore (1977) find out about interactional synchrony
Found that from 2 weeks there was an association between the facial expressions from adults and the actions of the baby
What did Isabella et Al (1989) find out about interactional synchrony
Found that higher levels of synchrony was associated with a better quality of attachment
What are alert phases
When babies signal that they are ready for a spell of interaction
What did Feldman and Eidelman (2007) say about alert phases
That motheres usually pick up on them around 2/3 of the time although it various according to the skill of the mother
Strengths of caregiver-infant interactions
Interactions are usually filmed in a laboratory
Limitations of Caregiver-infant interactions
It is hard to interpret a babys behaviour
Simply observing babies does not tell us its developmental importance
Why are filmed observations a strength of caregiver-infant interactions
Other activity that can distract a baby will be controlled as it is in a lab.
Analysed later and by multiple people - unlikely they will miss key behaviours - inter-rater reliability
Babies don’t know they are being observed
How is difficulty observing babies a limitation of caregiver-infant interaction
Young babies lack coordination and much of their bodies are immobile so just hand movements and expressions are being observed - cant determine what is taking place from the babies perspective - is a hand twitch just random? - not certainty they have special meaning
Why is Developmental importance a limitation of caregiver-infant interaction
Feldman (2002) points out things that synchrony simply give names to patterns of observable behaviours. These are a phenomena in the sense that they can be observed but are not useful in understanding babies development as it does not tell us the purpose of these behaviours - cannot be certain they are important
