Caregiver-infant interactions :Reciprocity and interactional synchrony Flashcards
Define attachment
*A close two way emotional bond between two individuals
* In which each person sees the other as essential for their own health
Define reciprocity
- A mutual turn taking form of interaction.
*Both caregiver and infant contribute to the interaction by responding to the others signals and cues
Define interactional synchrony
- Caregiver and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other
- And do this is in a coordinated way
What is imitation
When an infant copies the caregivers expression
What is body contact
*Physical contact that is necessary for bonding
*Especially in the first few hours of life ie breastfeeding
What are the three characteristics of attachment and define them
1.Proximity-People try to stay close physically close to those who are attached
2.Separation distress- People are distressed when an attachment figure leaves their presence
3.Secure base behaviour- Even when you are independent of our attachment figures we tend to make regular contact with them
Meltzoff and Moore (1977)-Interactional synchrony (6)
*Meltzoff and Moore (1977) conducted a systematic study of interactional synchrony
*Found that infants as young as two or three weeks old imitated special facial hand gestures
*Study was conducted using an adult model who displayed one of three facial expressions
*A dummy was placed in the infant’s mouth during the initial display to prevent any response
*Following the display the dummy was removed from the child’s mouth and their expression was filmed
*They found that there was an association between the infants behaviour and that of the adult model
Oostenbroek et al (2016)-CON
Contradictory study of Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
*Oostenbroek et al (2016) tested a much wider array of actions and tracked behaviour longitudinally in infants over the first 9 weeks of life
*They replicated the original M&M finding for tongue protrusion but across the board there was no evidence of imitation for other behaviours
General pro for the studies watching babies (3)
High internal validity
*Many studies use multiple observers
*,blind to the true aims of the experiment to provide inter-rater reliability or even use complex camera systems to document and slow down micro sequences of the interactions between caregivers and infants.
*The high control of infant studies indicates high internal validity
Condon and Sander (1974) -Pro (3)
Investigates interactional synchrony
*Condon and Sander (1974) videotaped interactions between adults and infants focusing on the movements of the infants in response to adult speech .
*Using a detailed frame by frame analysis of the video recordings, they found evidence of interactional synchrony between the infants movements and the rhythmic patterns of the adults speech.
*These results show even from birth humans have an innate ability for social interaction
General con about the findings of caregiver-infant interactions (5)
*Infants cannot directly communicate their thoughts or emotions.
*Therefore, findings in caregiver-infant interaction research depends on inferences which are considered unscientific.
*Inferences are assumptions about the infant’s internal mental states based on observed behaviour. *However inferences could be mistaken for example researchers should not claim imitation behaviour is intentional,
* it may be imitation is an unconscious automatic response
Con about social sensitivity and women who go to work (3)
*Social sensitivity is a concern when investigating child rearing techniques including norms around caregiver-infant interactions,
*some women may find their life choices critisiced such as mothers who decide to return to the workplace shortly after giving birth
*and cannot develop a high level of interactional synchrony with their infant
