L1- Caregiver And Infant Interactions

Question 1

What is developmental psychology

Answer 1

branch of psychology concerned with progressive behavioural changes that occur in individuals across their lifespan

Question 2

What is attachment?

Answer 2

• An emotional bond between two people

- Two-way process that endures over time.

Question 3

What is reciprocity?

Answer 3

• Two-way, mutual process, where each party responds to the other’s signals to sustain interaction. (turn-taking)
• Behaviour of each party elicits response from other party

Question 4

What have studies shows in terms of reciprocity in infants and caregivers?

Answer 4

• infants coordinate actions with caregivers in a type of conversation
• regularity of infants signal allows caregiver to anticipate infants behaviour and respond appropriately
• sensitivity to infant behaviours lays foundation for later attachment between caregiver and infant

Question 5

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 5

• When adults and babies respond in time to sustain communication
• Caregiver and infant interact so that their actions and emotions mirror each other.

Question 6

Who investigated interactional synchrony?

Answer 6

Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

Question 7

Meltzoff and Moores experiment (1977)

Answer 7

• found infants as young as 2/3 weeks old imitated specific facial and hand gestures they saw adults do.
• Adult model displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions or hand movements.
• Dummy placed in the baby’s mouth during the display to prevent any response.
• Following display, dummy removed and infant’s expression filmed.
• Found association between infant’s behaviour and adult model.

Question 8

Strengths of Caregiver and Infant Interactions

Answer 8

+ Interactional synchrony has been demonstrated in several studies (supporting evidence) . Meltzoff and Moore found infants young as 3 days old were displaying this behaviour, suggesting the imitation behaviours are not learned and are innate.

+ Murray and Trevarthen (1985)
mothers to interact with their babies over video monitor. Then babies were played tape of their mother where she was not responding to them. Babies tried to attract mother’s attention but when failed ,gave up responding –> Shows that babies want their mothers to reciprocate.

+ Abravanal and DeYong (1991)
observed infant behaviour when interacting with puppet that looked like human mouth opening and closing. Infant’s= little response to this, shows not just imitating what they see; interactional synchrony is a specific social response.

Question 9

Limitations of Caregiver and Infant Interactions

Answer 9

• Babies cannot communicate so psychologists are relying on their inferences- can’t be sure infants are actually trying to communicate.
• The expressions tested (tongue sticking out, yawning, and smiling) are ones that infants frequently make anyways so may not have been deliberately imitating what they saw.

Question 10

Difficulties investigating caregiver - infant interaction

Answer 10

1. Studies found babies’ attachment behaviours stronger in lab than at home —> to increase validity, studies must take place at natural setting (home)
2. Most studies into caregiver-infant interactions are observational —> may be bias in observer’s interpretation (observer bias). Can be countered by using more than 1 observer (inter- rater reliability).
3. Practical issues —> often asleep or feeding when psychologists want to observe them. Use fewer but shorter observation periods because of babies limited waking periods.
4. Extra care to ethics to not affect child or parent in any way e.g. protection from harm, confidentiality etc.