Caregiver Infant Interaction

• Attachment:

  Attachment is a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security

  
  

  A child's first attachment relationship tends to be with their primary caregiver. The quality of this first attachment relationship is thought to have a profound effect on out later development. Early attachment relationships can be identified by
• Attachment:

  Babies aren't born with an attachment relationship it has to develop, interactions between an infant and their caregiver are though to be building blocks for forming later relationships
• PROXIMITY SEEKING-


  wanting to remain physically close to the primary caregiver always
• SEPARATION ANXIETY-


  being worried and not liking being away from the primary caregiver
• STRANGER ANXIETY-


  being anxious in the close proximity of strangers
• EXPLORATION/SECURE BASE BEHAVIOUR-


  a child will have more confidence to explore if their primary caregiver is close as they act as a secure base for them
• RECIPROCITY:

  when an infant and their carer interact by taking it in turns to perform actions.

  
  

  The carer or the infant may initiate the interaction by doing something to elicit a response from the other. The other person then reciprocates by responding to the signal in some way
• INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY:


  when an infant and their carer perform the same actions at the same time-they mirror the same behaviour.

  
  

  The carer or the infant may initiate the interaction and the other person synchronises in response
• RECIPROCITY Feldman and Eidelman(2007) Supporting evidence/A01


  found that mothers typically pick up on and respond to their baby's alertness around 2 out of 3 times (so the baby is initiating the reaction, and the mother reciprocates but not always)
• RECIPROCITY (Feldman)


  Feldman found from around three months this interaction tends to become increasingly frequent and involves both the mother and baby paying close attention to each other's verbal signals and facial expressions
• What does this tell us:

  Tells us that reciprocity occurs really early on in a relationship, it is basic to start with but becomes sophisticated as the child grows up
• Interactional synchrony: Meltzoff and Moore (1977 Supporting evidence


  found that when an adult displayed on of three facial expressions/one of three distinctive gestures, babies' expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of adults more than chance would predict i.e. there was a significant association
• Interactional synchrony: Isabella et al (1989)


  found that after observing 50 mothers and babies together and assessing the degree of synchrony, they found that high levels of synchrony were associates with better quality mother-baby attachment (e.g., the emotional intensity of the relationship
• What does this tell us:

  Tells us that the more times a mother spends doing interactional synchrony with her baby the better their relationship is
• A03: useful real-life application

  P-One strength is that is has useful real-life application .

  E-This is because it highlights the importance of reciprocity and interactional synchrony in terms of meeting a babies emotional and developmental needs

  E_so this can be used to inform mothers/carers of the importance of interacting with the babies they care for in this way.
• A03: counter- to real-life application

  C-However it is also socially sensitive as it may put pressure on parents to try to interact with their babies in the correct way and this may cause worry and anxiety if they feel that their child is not responding appropriately.

  E-Being a new parent is already a stressful time so this pressure could cause more harm than good.

  L-Therefore, this means that by placing too much importance on parents to interact with their babies this way it may increase anxiety surrounding parenting.
• A03: strength (high in reliability)

  P- One strength is that research is often high in reliability.

  E-They often use of videos which can record both the caregivers and babies interactions carefully by observing from many angles and zooming in on finer details such as facial expression and many also use multiple observers blind to the true aims of the experiment to provide inter-rather reliability

  E-This can also be played back to assess again and again.

  L-Therefore, this means that the results are able to be consistently replicated

  E-As babies cannot tell us their intentions and they do not have well developed motor skills so their actions can be clumsy.

  E-This means we have to interpret the baby's behaviour and we may attach more meaning to the behaviour than actually exists.

  L-Therefore, some research may lack objectivity as it is down to interpretation/inferences it may be and so having these videos can lead to more accurate conclusions from a range of researchers.
• A03: strength high internal validity

  P-One strength is that it is high in internal validity.

  E-This is because they tend to use controlled observations which means extraneous situational variables such as things which may distract the baby can be controlled.

  L-Therefore, this means a cause and effect relationship can be established between e.g. the facial expressions and the baby reciprocating/mirroring it.
• A03: weakness demand characteristics


  P-One weakness is that babies don't display demand characteristics, but the carers may do, and the baby may also pick up and respond to this.

  E/L-Therefore, this means that some research may lack validity as they may not truly be testing reciprocity/interactional synchrony and instead be testing the baby's response to demand characteristics.
• Imitation


  The infant directly copies the caregiver's expression
• Body Contact


  Physical contact, especially skin-to-skin contact, is necessary for bonding, especially in the first few hours (I.e. breastfeeding)