Infant-Caregiver Interactions Flashcards
Infancy
Period of a child’s life before speech begins
What is one of the key interactions between caregivers and their infants?
non verbal communication
What determines the formation of attachment?
The manner in which infants and caregivers respond to each other during non verbal communication
What are the two main types of caregiver-infant interactions in humans?
Reciprocity and interactional synchrony
Reciprocity
an interaction where each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them
Feldman (2007)
Said that from around 3 months interaction is more frequent and becomes reciprocity. It involves verbal signals and facial expressions
Feldman and Eidelman (2007)
Mothers typically pick up on and respond to infant alertness around two-thirds of the time.
Brazelton et al (1975)
Described interaction as a dance because each partner responds to the others moves.
Brazelton (1979)
Reciprocity - suggested rhythm was a precursor to later communication, regularity of infant’s signals allows greater sensitivity of caregiver and attachments
interactional synchrony
The temporal coordination of micro-level social behaviour. A reflection of what the other is doing
Who studied interactional synchrony?
Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
How did Meltzoff and Moore (1977) study interactional synchrony?
Controlled observation of 4 stimuli on infants - an adult displaying 3 facial expressions or a hand movement. Infant had a dummy and the child’s response was recorded and rewatched in real-time, slow motion and frame by frame
What were the behavioural categories in Meltzoff and Moore (1977)?
- Mouth opening
- Termination of mouth opening
- Tongue protrusion
- Termination of tongue protrusion
What were the findings of Meltzoff and Moore (1977)?
Infants as young as 2-3 weeks old imitated specific facial gestures and there was an association between infant behaviour and the adult model
What did Meltzoff and Moore find in a later study?
The same synchrony in infants only 3 days old, this may show that interactional synchrony is innate rather than learned
What did Piaget (1962) argue about interactional synchrony?
Infants as young as 3 days old cannot imitate intentionally and are instead just doing a pseudo imitation, such as copying for a reward, like the caregiver smiling. He believed true imitation happened after the child was a year old.
What is evidence for Meltzoff study?
Murray and Trevarthen (1985)
How did Murray and Trevarthen (1985) conduct their research?
2 month old infants first interacted via a video monitor with their mother in real time. Then the video monitor played a tape of the mother so the image on the screen wasn’t responding to the infants gestures.
What happened in Murray and Trevarthen (1985)?
This caused acute distress. The infant tried to attract their mothers interest but when receiving no response they turned away.
What does the outcome of Murray and Trevarthen (1985) research show?
An infant is actively eliciting a response rather than just displaying a response that has been rewarded. this shows the importance of interactional synchrony
What are the disadvantages of reciprocity and interactional synchrony?
- Issues testing infant behaviour as it’s difficult to reliably test due to their mouths being in constant motion
- Failure to replicate
- Individual differences between infant behaviour
What are examples of failure to replicate research into infant caregiver interactions?
- Koepke (1985)’s failure to replicate Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
- Marian (1986) failure to replicate Murray and Trevarthen (1985)
Isabella (1989)
Found that more strongly attached infant caregiver pairs showed greater interactional synchrony, giving a disadvantage for interactional synchrony due to individual differences between infants
Who tested the intentionality of infants and their response to inanimate objects?
Abravenal and Deyoung (1991)
Heinmann (1989)
Infants who demonstrate a lot of imitation at birth have better relationships at 3 months —> cause and effect
What are the advantages of reciprocity and interactional synchrony?
- Testing intentionality of infants and their response to inanimate objects.
- Important to study as it shows the formation of social development (Meltzoff (2005))
Meltzoff (2005)
like me hypothesis, the baby associates their imitation with feelings and thoughts of others and this leads to understanding how people think and feel (theory of mind)
Abravenal and DeYoung (1991)
Observed infant behaviour when interacting with two objects and found that infants between ages of 5 to 12 weeks had little response showing babies don’t just imitate what they see, it’s a social interaction
