Features of caregiver-infant interaction Flashcards
Attachment
strong emotional bond between an infant and a caregiver
* its a two-way process that endures overtime
* each see the other essential for their own emotional security
Features of care-giver interactions
- Caregiverese
- Bodily contact
- Reciprocity
- Interactional synchrony
- Mimicking
Caregiverese
adults who interact with infants use a modified form of vocal language that is high pitched, song like in nature, slow and repetitive
* this aids communication between carer and infant and is severe to strenghten the attachment bond
Bodily contact
physical interactions between carer and infant help to form an attachment bond, especially in the period immediately after birth
Reciprocity
Both infant and mother respond to each others signals and each elicits a response from the other e.g. when a smile occurs in one person, this triggers a smile in the other
* babies have alert phases in which way they signal e.g. through eye contact, that they are ready for interaction
* typically mothers will respond to these signals although this does depend on how skilled the mother is and factors e.g. stress
Interactional synchrony
- mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other
- do this in a **coordinated way **
- actions and emotions mirror each other
Mimicking
- infants have an innate ability to imitate carers facial expressions
- suggests its a biological device to aid formation of attachments
Research support/evidence:
- Meltzoff and Moore
- Tronick et al - still face experiment
Meltzoff and Moore
1997
* experiment where babies were shown facial gestures (e.g. sticking out tongue) and manual gestures (waving fingers) in order to investigate their abilities to imitate
* results showed babies ages 12-21 days old could imitate both facial and manual gestures
* shows that babies have the ability to mimick and imitate what they see
Tronick et al
Still face experiment
* 1979
* asked mothers who had been enjoying dialogue with their baby to stop moving and maintain a static, unsmiling facial expression
* babaies would try to tempt mother into interaction by smiling themselves and would become puzzled and increasingly distressed when their smile didnt provoke the usual response
* tronick concludes that reciprocity and interactional synchrony are important for a secure relationship
Evaluation:
+ Isabella et al
- Levine et al
- Koepke et al
- Socially sensitive research
- Belsky and Rovine
+ No demand characteristics
+ Isabella et al
- observed 30 mothers and infants together to assess the degree of interactional synchrony
- found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachments/relationships
- Levine et al
- 1994
- reported Kenyan mothers have little physical contact/interactions with their infants, but such infants have a high proportion of secure attachments
- goes against the idea that bodily contact is important
- Koepke et al
- other studies failed to replicate findings of Meltzoff and Moores research
- Koepke et al (1983) failed to replicate their findings
- Meltzoff counter argued that research by Koepke failed because it was less carefully controlled
- Socially sensitive research
- mother-infant interactions is that it is socially sensitive research
- suggests that children maybe disadvantaged by particular child-rearing practices
- specifically, mothers who return to work shortly after child is born to restrict the opportunities for achieving interactional synchrony
