caregiver-infant interactions

• What is reciprocity?

  two way process

  each party responds to the others signals to interact

  behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other
• What is interactional synchrony?

  when adults and babies respond in time to sustain communication

  it is a simultaneous co-ordinated sequence
• What do reciprocity and interactional synchrony do?

  Help strengthen the attachment bond
• What was the main focus of Meltzoff and Moore's study?

  Imitation and whether infants would copy adult behavior
• What was the method used in Meltzoff and Moore's study?

  • Conducted controlled observations
  • Involved babies aged 6 to 27 days old
  • Included 12 babies aged 16-21 days old
  • Exposed to four different stimuli:
  • Three facial gestures (e.g., sticking tongue out)
  • One manual gesture (e.g., waving fingers)
• What were the main findings of Meltzoff and Moore's study?

  Babies could imitate both facial expressions and manual gestures
• Why is imitation considered an important building block for development according to Meltzoff and Moore's study?

  It serves as a foundation for later social and cognitive development
• Evaluation of reciprocity and interactional synchrony:

  🙂 scientific

  ☹️ difficult to know infants‘ intention

  ☹️ cultural bias

  🙂 Important for social development- Meltzoff

  ☹️ only describe not explain why- Feldman
• Who came up with the stages of attachment?

  Schaffer

  
• Fill in the type of attachment for each stage

  1: pre-attachment

  2: indiscriminate attachment

  3: discriminate attachment

  4: multiple attachments

  
• Fill in the years for each stage of attachment

  1. birth to 6 weeks
  2. 6 weeks to 7 months
  3. 7 months to 12 months
  4. 12+ months

  
• Evaluations of stages of attachment

  🙂 ecological validity

  ☹️ unrepresentative sample

  ☹️ difficult to interpret behaviour - Bowlby

  ☹️ individual differences

  ☹️ culturally relative
• Evaluations of the role of the father

  🙂 evidence to support - Schaffer and Emerson

  🙂 Fathers help mothers

  🙂 Long term benefits in relationships

  ☹️ Evidence to contradict - MacCallum and Golombok

  🙂 Prevent negative outcomes
• In 2013, what percentage of families had the male as the primary caregiver while the mother worked?

  10%
• What percentage of single parents are males?

  9%
• Who found that children form strong attachments with their fathers?

  Lamb
• How do children form attachments with their fathers compared to their mothers?

  For different reasons, usually through play with fathers.
• What did Field (1978) study regarding infants and caregivers?

  • Filmed four-month-old babies with:
  • Primary caregiver mothers
  • Primary caregiver fathers
  • Secondary caregiver fathers
• What does the behavior of primary caregiver fathers suggest about their role?

  It shows that fathers can be the nurturing attachment figure.
• According to Field, what is the key to attachment?

  The level of responsiveness, not the gender of the parent.