Caregiver-infant interactions and attachment

Question 1

Caregiver interactions

Answer 1

• How babies socially connect with their carers
• Foundations of healthy attachments to other people

Question 2

Attachment

Answer 2

• A close two way emotional bond between individuals where each person sees the other as essential for emotional security
• Proximity, separation anxiety, secure base behaviour

Question 3

Reciprocity

Answer 3

Description of how two people interact - giving signals, receiving signals and responding to other person’s signals

Question 4

Alert signals

Answer 4

Babies will periodically signal that they are ready for some interactions
0-3 months sporadic
3 month+ increasingly frequent, active involvement on initiating interactions

Question 5

Interactional synchrony

Answer 5

Doing the same actions or reflecting the same emotions as another person

Question 6

Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

Answer 6

• observed beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks
• adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions -> babies response filmed and labelled by independent observers
• babies expressions + gestures were more likely to mirror those of adults more than predications

Question 7

Isabella et al (1989)

Answer 7

• observed 30 mothers and babies together
• assessed the degree of synchrony
• assessed quality of mother-baby attachment
• found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachment

Question 8

Strengths of research

Answer 8

Interactions usually filmed in a laboratory - control of variables
Film - establish inter-rater reliability of observations
Babies don’t know they’re being filmed

Question 9

Limitation of research

Answer 9

Hard to interpret baby’s behaviour - lack co ordination and mich of their bodies are almost immobile