caregiver-infant interactions ao3

Question 1

Strength of research into caregiver - infant interactions - filmed observations

Answer 1

P: Filmed in a labatory
E: This is goof bc other activities taht would otherwise distract babies thag reseacherts cannot give instructions to can be controlled.
Also observations can be recorded and later analysed so thus it’s unlikely that researchers will miss any key behaviours
E: good bc more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations
Also babies don’t know their being observed so their behaviour doesn’t change in response to being observed by researchers - this is an advantage compared to other overt observations
L: therefore the data collected has good reliability (its consistent) and good validity - (no demand characteristics and extraneous variables controlled)

Question 2

Weakness of research into caregiver - infant interactions a difficulty observing babies

Answer 2

P: it is hard to interpret a babies behaviour
E: babies have general lack of coordination and generally immobile
So observations of mainly hand movements or subtle changes in expression - hard to know what’s going on what it means or what’s going on from babies perspective so it’s hard to establish meaning behinf tbeir movmrntd and if it’s due to caregiver interaction
So we can’t be sure if these interactions have any special meaning bc of how hard it is to interpret them

Question 3

Weakness of caregiver to infant interactions - developmental importance

Answer 3

P: observing a behaviour dooesnt tell us its development importance
E: so synchrony and reciprocity are jsur names given to patterns of behaviour observed
E: they clearly exist but not useful in understanding dev bc we don’t know the purpose of behaviours
So observational research alone can’t tell us whether they’re ( reciprocity and interactional synch) are important for infant dev

Question 4

Counterpoint to weakness ab caregiver infant interactions - dev importantanvr

Answer 4

Isabella 1989 research as she founf positive correlation between quality of attachment and the amount of interactional synch that occurred between mother and infant