psychology attachment caregiver infant interactions

Question 1

what is reciprocity

Answer 1

babies and mothers spend a lot of time in intense and highly pleasurable interaction
each respond to the other and elicits a response from them

Question 2

what is the alert phases

Answer 2

periodic phases which they signal that they are ready for a spell of interaction
research shows that mothers pick up on and respond to their babies around 2/3 times but varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress
from around three months this interaction becomes increasingly frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each others verbal signals and facial expressions

Question 3

what is active involvement

Answer 3

traditional views of childhood as babies being passive
babies as well as caregivers take active roles
caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so
brazelton- described it as a dance where each person responds to the others persons moves

Question 4

what is interactional synchrony

Answer 4

temporal coordination of micro level social behaviour
takes place when caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror each other

Question 5

what is synchrony begins

Answer 5

meltzoff and moore- as young as two weeks old, adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures, the babys response was filmed and labelled by independent observers, babies expression and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict

Question 6

what is importance for attachment

Answer 6

isabella- 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony, researchers also assessed the quality of mother baby attachment, they found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother baby attachment

Question 7

what is filmed observation evaluation point

Answer 7

strength
- caregiver infant interactions usually filmed in lab
- other activity that might distract the baby can be controlled
- can be recorded and analysed later
- unlikely that researchers will miss seeing key behaviours
- means that more than one observer can record data and establish the inter rater reliability of observations
- babies dont know theyre being observed so their behaviour doesnt change in response to observation
- data collected should have good reliability and validity

Question 8

what is difficulty observing babies evaluation points

Answer 8

weakness
- hard to interpret babies behaviour
- lack coordination and much of their bodies immobile
- movements are just small hand movements or subtle changes in expression
- difficult to be sure whether a baby is smiling or passing wind
- cant know whether a movement such as a hand twitch is random or triggered by what the caregiver has done
- cant be certain the behaviours have a special meaning

Question 9

what is developmental importance evaluation points

Answer 9

weakness
- observing behaviour doesnt tell us its developmental importance
- feldman- ideas liek synchrony give names to patterns of observale behaviours- robust phenomena in the sense they can be reliably observed but may not be useful in understanding child development as it doesnt tell us the purpose of behaviours
- cant be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a childs development
strength
- evidence from other research- early interactions are important
- isabella- achievement of interactional synchrony preducted the development of good quality attachement
- caregiver infant interaction probably important in development