Caregiver-infant interactions

• What is attachment?

  A strong, long-lasting emotional tie or bond between two people characterised by behaviours such as proximity seeking, separation distress and pleasure on reunion.
• What is reciprocity?

  A description of how two people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and infant respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.
• What is interactional synchrony?

  Where a caregiver and infant reflect both the actions and the emotions of the other in a coordinated way.
• What are alert phases?

  • babies have periodic ‘alert phases‘ in which they signal e.g. eye contact that they are ready for a spell of interaction
  • research shows that mothers typically pick up on and respond to their baby’s alertness around 2/3 of the time (Feldman and Eildmann), although this varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors e.g. stress
  • from around 3 months this interaction tends to become increasingly frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions
• What is active involvement?

  • Both caregiver and baby (not just caregiver) can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so
  • this interaction is described as a 'dance‘ because it is just like a couple's dance where each partner responds to the other person's moves
• Explain the research study carried out on caregiver-infant interaction (M&M)

  • (Meltzoff & Moore) conducted a controlled observation with young infants - adult displayed one of 3 facial expressions and one hand gesture
  • the behaviour / facial expressions of infants in response to these were observed and recorded
  • it was found that there was an association between the behaviour of the infant and that of the adult model
  • a later study found the same levels of interactional synchrony with infants only 3 days old, suggesting this behaviour is innate
• Evaluate the strengths of Meltzoff and Moore’s research study

  • controlled nature of research —> research is replicable therefore findings can be tested by other researchers (later replication suggested this behaviour is innate which strongly supports the role of these behaviours in forming attachments)
  • little disagreement within observers about the babies’ facial responses - facial expressions of the adult limited to only 3 allows for a degree of certainty
• Evaluate the limitations of Meltzoff and Moore’s research study

  • controlled environment may reduce generalisability of the findings to other situations (the research measures responses to an adult model who is not the caregiver)
  • not all attempts to replicate this study have succeeded —> casts some doubt on the reliability of the findings
• Explain the research study carried out on caregiver-infant interactions (T)

  • (Tronick) filmed controlled observations of mothers with their baby where mothers at first interacted normally with their baby, then stopped moving, maintaining a static unsmiling expression on their faces
  • observed that babies would try and get their mothers to interact, and showed confusion and distress when the mother would not engage
  • this demonstrates that babies are not passive in their interactions with caregivers and have an active role in reciprocal interactions
• Evaluate the strengths of Tronick‘s research study

  • well controlled study that gives further support to the importance of these interactions in forming attachments - filmed interactions allow for careful observation and checking of inter-rater reliability
  • behaviour of the adult is ambiguous and could be easily replicated in other research, making the findings reliable therefore more likely to be valid
• Evaluate the limitations of Tronick‘s research study

  • unethical - babies caused emotional distress when their mothers adopted a passive face. also unethical in terms of the lack of informed consent (baby doesn’t consent, only the caregiver)
  • practical implications of the ‘still face’ study in relation to carers who may be living in stressful situations e.g. domestic abuse