introduction to attachment Flashcards
gonna ace this in PP3 ;)
what is meant by ‘attachment’ ? (2)
an emotional tie or bond between 2 people , usually a primary caregiver and a child
–> the relationship is usually reciprocal , which means it is 2-way relationship that endures over time
when does attachment begin in terms of between infants and caregivers ?
interactions between infants and caregivers
what is key from the caregiver ?
responsiveness
what is the importance of the interactions of the carers and the baby ?
–> important for social development
–> important for development of good quality attachment
define reciprocity
a mutual exchange where both the caregiver and infant respond to each other’s signal , influencing each other’s behaviour
what is believed to occur for babies at an early age ?
have meaningful social interactions with their carers
what do babies have and show ?
periodic ‘alert phases’ and signal that they are ready for interaction
how often do mothers respond to this ( research supported by) ?
typically pick up on and respond to infant alertness around two-thirds of the time
–>(Feldman and Eidelman 2007)
what happens to the baby in terms of reciprocity (research supported by)?
increases in frequency
–> involves close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions (Feldman 2007)
what have traditional views of childhood seen babies in ?
passive role
–> receiving care from an adult
what is now established between the baby and the mother ?
an active role
–> both mother and child can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in turn in doing so
what is research that supports this now established between role ?
brazleton et al. (1975)
–> described this interaction as a ‘dance’ because it is just like a couple’s dance where each partner responds to each other’s moves
define interactional synchrony
mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way
what can interactional synchrony be defined as (research supported by) ?
‘the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour’ ’ (Feldman 2007)
when does interactional synchrony take place ?
when mother and infant interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other
what does the research show taken by ( M + M in —-) ?
Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
–> observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as 2 weeks old
–> adults displayed 2 of 3 facial expressions or gestures and the infants reaction was filmed and identified
–> there was a correlation between adult behaviour and infant response
what does the research show taken by ( I e A in —-) ?
Isabella et al. (1989)
–> assessed degree of synchrony in 30 infants and their mothers
–> also assessed the quality of attachment between mothers and infants
–> found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachments (e.g. high emotional intensity of relationships
what offers several advantages ?
–> controlled observations filmed in a laboratory setting
what can be minimized for the baby and means ?
potential distractions
–> ensuring a more focused observation of their natural behaviour
what can researchers do later which means ?
analyse key behaviours
–> reducing the chance of missing important details
what can multiple observers do and this means ?
can independently assess the same footage
–> helping to establish inter-rater reliability
what is strength that helps the experiment which means ?
babies are unaware that they are being observed
–> their behaviour is unlikely to change due to the presence of researchers unlikely in overt behaviours
what is good about the data collected ?
methods are likely to be both reliable and valid
–> which strengthens the overall credibility of the findings
what is weakness of the experiment ?
it’s hard to interpret baby’s behaviour
–> due to lack of coordination
–> immobile
–> observations are mainly of hand movements or subtle changes in expressions
__> hard to know what is going on / what the meaning is and what is going on from the baby’s perspective
OVERALL can’t be sure that the behaviours observed in caregiver infant interactions have any special meaning
what does observing the behaviour not tell us ?
it’s developmental importance
what are synchrony and reciprocity according to Feldman ?
just names given to patterns of behaviour
what is a weakness of the patterns of behaviour ?
although they clearly exist
–> not particularly useful in understanding development as we don’t know the purpose of the behaviours
what can’t observational research alone tell us ?
whether they are important for an infant’s development
