Caregiver-infant interactions: AO1

Question 1

What are signs that an attachment has formed?

Answer 1

• Proximity seeking - Wanting to be physically close to our attachment figure
• Separation anxiety - signs of distress when attachment figure leaves
• Secure-base behaviour - regular returning to the attachment figure

Question 2

What are two attachment interactions that serve to develop and maintain an attachment bond?

Answer 2

• Reciprocity
• Interactional synchrony

Question 3

What is reciprocity?

Answer 3

A description of how two people interact, in which a caregiver and baby will respond in a turn-taking manner to each other’s behaviour

e.g child smiles, caregiver says something in response, ch respond again

Question 4

What are alert phases?

Answer 4

Babies have periodic phases in which they will signal their caregiver that they are ready for interaction

Question 5

What is active involvement?

Answer 5

Both babies and their caregivers can do & instigate interactions

Question 6

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 6

A description of how two people interact, in which caregivers and babies reflect both the same actions and emotions of the other at the same time
synchronised

Question 7

What did Miltzoff and Moore (1977) do?

Answer 7

They evidenced interactional synchrony in infants as young as two weeks old
Adult model displayed one of three facial expressions; child response was filmed
Observer who had no knowledge of what the child had just seen were asked to note all the instances of infant tongue protusions and head movements using behavioural categories.

Event sampling

Question 8

How did Meltzoff and Moore (1977) use observers in their study?

Answer 8

They used intra-observer and inter-observer reliability