Caregiver-infant interactions

Question 1

What is reciprocity? (Jaffe et al)

Answer 1

Infants coordinate their actions with caregivers in a kind of conversation by moving in a rhythm and taking turns - the actions are not necessarily similar

Question 2

What does Brazelton believe about reciprocity?

Answer 2

It allows the caregiver to anticipate the infants behaviour and respond appropriately.
The caregiver’s sensitivity & ability to respond to infant behaviour lays the foundation for attachment between them and the infant

Question 3

What is interactional synchrony? Is it learnt or innate?

Answer 3

When the infant and caregiver mirror each other’s actions (face and hand gestures etc)

Meltzoff and Moore showed that this synchrony was shown in infants only 3 days old - suggests it is innate, not learned

Question 4

What does Tronick et al’s ‘still face’ study show about caregiver-infant interaction and reciprocity & interactional synchrony?

Answer 4

In the study the infants played and interacted, and once the mother stopped responding to the infants actions and became somewhat a ‘still face’, the baby became distressed and tried to gain a response (smiling, pointing, screaming, reaching arms out to be picked up).
As soon as the ‘still face’ was removed and the mother responded, the baby goes back to normal and is content. This supports reciprocity & intersectional synchrony as it shows that the baby sought a response INTENTIONALLY

Question 5

What is Jean Piaget’s theory about pseudo-imitation rather than genuine ‘conversation’ from infants to their caregivers?

Answer 5

Anything before the first year of an infants life is ‘response training’ rather than true imitation. Infants undergo operant conditioning (e.g seeing caregiver sticking their tongue out, copying it, seeing the reward of them smiling & repeating the action to receive the same reward later) - the infant isn’t consciously translating what they see into a genuine response/matching movement, they are just trying to receive a reward

Question 6

Give two negatives for research on caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 6

1: it is difficult to distinguish between general infant activity and specific imitated behaviour as infants often smile, stick their tongues out, etc, regularly
2: individual differences in infants affects the interactions
Isabella et al found that more strongly attached infants showed greater interactional synchrony = there is a relationship between strength of attachment and closeness of synchrony