caregiver-infant interaction

• an attachment is a strong, enduring emotional and reciprocal bond between two people who rely on eachother for emotional security

  especially an infant and caregiver
• features of infant-caregiver interaction

  1. sensitive responsiveness
  2. imitation
  3. interactional synchrony
  4. reciprocity
  5. motherese
• sensitive responsiveness is how in tune a parent is with their child's emotional state, decodes signals accurately and responds appropriately and timely
• imitation is how an infant copies behaviour of a role model
• interactional synchrony is where an infant and caregiver mirror each other
• reciprocity is where behaviour is matched during an interaction as a direct response between infant and caregiver
• motherese is how adults offer various aspects of your speech to babies

  also known as infant directed speech or baby talk
• Meltzoff and Moore 1997 did a controlled observation

  babies aged 6-21 days old were exposed to facial and hand gestures and their response was observed and recorded

  independent observers scored recordings twice and found infants aged 2-3 weeks mimic adults facial and hand expressions
• Meltzoff and Moore strengths

  practical application in parental skills training

  inter-observer reliability

  filmed observation to see anything missed
• Isabella et Al 1989

  observed 30 mothers with infants

  higher levels of interactional synchrony associated with better quality attachment
• Meltzoff and Moore weaknesses

  infants constantly to move, hard to distinguish between general activity and imitated behaviours, also subjective

  individual differences affect interactional synchrony

  does not show importance or reasons for behaviour
• Schaeffer and Emerson 1964

  investigated formation of early attachment

  observational study in Glasgow

  60 ppts working class
• schaffer and emerson 1964

  longitudinal study over 18 months, mothers visited every 4 weeks

  report separation anxiety in 7 everyday situations

  report stranger anxiety as infant response to interviewer
• schaffer and emerson found attachment develops in first 6-8 months with whoever does most sensitive responsiveness

  found the main attachment at 18 months was mother for 65%, father for 3% and multiple attachment for 31%
• Schaffer and Emerson strengths

  replicable and standardised

  natural setting and covert, high ecological validity

  scale is objective

  longitudinal study so lots of in depth info
• schaffer and emerson weakness

  low temporal validity

  low control over extraneous variables

  bias due to self report of mothers, social desirability bias

  low population validity
• stages of attachment

  1. pre attachment
  2. indiscriminate attachment
  3. discriminate attachment
  4. multiple attachment
• pre-attachment birth to 3 months

  asocial stage

  no discrimination between humans

  prefer human stimuli
• indiscriminate attachment 3 to 7/8 months

  can tell people apart

  strong liking of family

  no stranger or separation anxiety
• discriminate attachment 7-8 months

  specific stage

  separation and stranger anxiety

  strong attachment to one primary caregiver
• multiple attachment 9 months onwards

  attachment with primary caregivers

  secondary attachment to multiple people
• schaffer stages strengths

  theory is flexible

  good external validity as naturalistic

  RWA in day care, send children when they do not have stranger anxiety

  longitudinal study so lots of in depth data
• schaffer and emerson

  conflicting evidence of Bowlby's multiple attachment theory

  multiple attachment is hard to distinguish

  ignores cultural differences, collectivists like Japan and China

  mothers not objective

  asocial babies are immobile so hard to measure anxiety
• traditional role of parents

  father is breadwinner, secondary caregiver, independent and hard working

  mother is kind, nurturing, looks after children, primary caregiver
• biological explanation of traditional parental roles

  women produce more oestrogen so have a higher emotional response, hence why they take a more active role and do more sensitive responsiveness
• Grossman 2002

  fathers are secondary attachment figures and play with the child

  longitudinal study with lots of information, increases validity

  quality of play influences adolescence attachment
• Field 1978

  face to face interactions analysed from video footage with infants aged 4 months

  found father as secondary caregiver plays more and holds child less

  father as primary caregiver do more sensitive responsiveness, smiling and vocalising like a mother
• role of father evaluation

  RWA encourage who should be primary caregiver and play

  conflicting evidence from McCallum and Golombok 2004 who found infants from single parent households don't develop differently

  socially sensitive

  economic implication as change in paternity laws and less males in work