caregiver-infant interactions Flashcards
what is associated with successful development of attachments?
the quality of interactions
what are the two kinds of interaction?
● reciprocity
● interactional synchrony
define ‘reciprocity’
when baby and caregiver respond to and elicit responses from each other
are babies active participants in reciprocity?
yes
what are babies ‘alert phases’?
when babies signal they are ready for interaction
how often do mothers respond to alert phases?
around two thirds of the time
define ‘interactional synchrony”
● caregiver and baby mirror each other’s behaviour
● carry out same actions simultaneously
what was the procedure of meltzoff and moore’s experiment? (interaction synchrony)
● experimenter displayed one of three facial expressions / gestures
● took videos of babies responding
● shown to an independent researcher (who had no knowledge of what the infant had just seen) who was asked to judge the behaviour they saw using behavioural categories
what were the findings of melzoff and moore’s experiment?
found that babies expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of adults than chance would predict
what was the procedure of isabella et al’s experiment?
● observed 20 mothers and infants together
● assessed the degree of synchrony
● and the quality of mother-infant attachment
what were the findings of isabella et al’s experiment?
found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment
