Lesson 1: Caregiver- Infant Interactions

Question 1

What is an attachment?

Answer 1

An emotional bond between two people. It is a two way process that endures over time.

Question 2

Two main types of caregiver-infant interactions in humans

Answer 2

• reciprocity
• interactional synchrony

Question 3

Reciprocity

Answer 3

An interaction is reciprocal when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them.

• studies demonstrated that infants coordinate their actions with their caregivers actions in a kind of conversation
• Brazelton et al described this interaction (reciprocity) as a dance because it is just like a couples dance where each partner responds to each others moves

Question 4

Interactional synchrony

Answer 4

Two people are said to be ‘synchronised’ when they carry out the same action simultaneously. Interactional synchrony can be defined as ‘the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour’.

• research has found that infants as young as two or three weeks old imitated specific facial and hand gestures that they saw adults do
• an adult model displayed one of three facial expressions or hand movements
• a dummy was placed in the baby’s mouth during the display to prevent any response, following the display the dummy was removed and the infants expression was filmed
• they found that there was an association between the infants behaviour and the adult model

Question 5

Positives of caregiver and infant interactions

Answer 5

• Murray and Trevarthen (1985) got mothers to interact with their babies over a video monitor. Then, babies were played a tape of their mother so she was not responding to them. The babies tried to attract their mother’s attention but when this failed they gave up responding. This shows that babies want their mothers to reciprocate.
• Abravanal and DeYong (1991) observed infant behaviour when interacting with a puppet that looked like a human mouth opening and closing. Infants made little response to this, which shows they are not just imitating what they observe; interactional synchrony is a specific social response.

Question 6

Negatives of infant and caregiver interactions

Answer 6

Babies cannot use language to communicate so psychologists are relying on their influences. They cannot be sure that infants are actually trying to communicate with their caregiver.

The expressions tested (tongue sticking out, yawning, smiling) are ones that infants frequently make so they may not have been deliberately imitating what they say.

Question 7

Difficulties investigating caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 7

Studies have found that babies attachment are much stronger in laboratory setting than they are in their home environment. Therefore, studies should take place in a natural setting e.g. child’s home to increase validity.

Most of studies into caregiver-infant interactions are observational so there may be bias in the observers interpretation of what they see (observer bias). This can be countered by using more than one observer (inter-rater reliability)

Practical issues when investigating caregiver infant interactions. Infants are often asleep or feeding when psychologists want to observe them. Researchers need to use fewer but shorter observation periods because of babies limited waking periods.