Caregiver infant interactions

    Cards (15)

    • Attachment
      An emotional bond between two people. A two-way process which endures over time
    • Caregiver
      Any person who is providing care for a child.
    • Caregiver-infant interactions

      The way in which an infant engages with and responds to the person who is providing them care
    • Two examples of caregiver-infant interactions
      • Reciprocity
      • Interactional synchrony
    • Reciprocity
      • Responding to an action
      • For example: when you call the baby to come and they crawl towards you
    • Intersectional synchrony
      • Imitating an action/emotion, at the same time
      • Example: when you clap, and the baby claps too
    • Research into caregiver-infant interactions
      Conducted by Meltzoff & Moore (1977)
    • Aim of the study
      To investigate how new-born infants interact with their caregivers.
    • Method
      Controlled observation
    • Procedure
      • Adult model displayed 3 facial expressions
      • The three facial expressions were sticking out their tongue, mouth opened and frowning
      • The infants responses to the model were recorded
      • The video recording s were then given to independent judges, who then decided which facial expression the infants were demonstrating.
    • Results
      • All scores were greater than 0.92, indicating high inter-rater reliability
      • There was a clear association between the infants’ behaviour and that of the adult model
      • Later research by Meltzoff and Moore (1983) found the same findings in three-day-old infants
    • Conclusion
      Based on the findings, Meltzoff and Moore concluded that the infant intentionally responds to the caregivers actions, even at a very young age
    • Well-controlled
      • Point: Praised for being well-controlled
      • Evidence: Procedure was a controlled observation as they recoded and watched the videotapes of the infants behaviour
      • Explain: Behaviour wouldnt be changed as the babies don’t care that they are being observed, and there’s high control over
      • Link: Increased the internal validity of the study meaning the research could assume that the facial expressions shown by the adult (IV) caused the infants response (DV)
    • Do we know the purpose of caregiver-infant interactions?
      Point: Theory fails to inform us why these interactions take place
      Evidence: Feldman (2012) - synchrony and reciprocity just describes the behaviour that happens at the time. can reliably be observed but not be as used to tell their purpose
      Explain: However, there’s evidence that reciprocal interaction and synchrony are helpful development of mother-infant attachment as well as moral development, language, empathy etc
      Link: More research in this area is needed to gain a full understanding of these particular behaviours
    • Is the infant’s behaviour intentional ?

      Point: Further research which suggests that an infant‘s response to their caregiver is intentional
      Evidence: Abravanel & Deyoung (1991) - tested intentionality of infant behaviour by observation how they respond to inanimate objects with two objects. Found that children between 5-12 weeks made some response to objects
      Explain: They don’t just imitate anything they see but it’s a specific social response to other humans
      Link: Findings suggest that when infants respond to humans its a specific social response
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