Caregiver-infant interactions

• An attachment is a close two way bond, between two, in which each sees the other as essential for won emotional security. Attachment recognised when: proximity, separation distress, and secure base behaviour is displayed.
• Reciprocity achieved when baby and caregiver respond to and elicit responses from eachother.

  Mothers successfully respond around 2/3s of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007). From 3m+, interaction becomes more intense and reciprocal.

  Babies are active participants. Both cg and baby can initiate interactions and take turns to do so.
• Interactional Synchrony:

  People said to be synchronised when they carry out same actions simultaneously. Formal def: temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour (Feldman 2007).

  Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed beginnings of i.s in babies young as two weeks old. Babies expression+gestures more likely to mirror adults than chance would predict.

  Isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies tg, assessed degree of synchrony. Also assessed quality of mother-baby attachment. Found high levels of synchrny were associated with better m-b attachment (emotional intensity of rs).
• ++Use of filmed observations in research. M-b interactions usually filmed from multiple angles. Very fine details of behaviour can be analysed later. Also babies don't know they're being observed so behaviour does not change in response to observation. This means that studies have good reliability and validity.
• --Difficulty in observing babies in the course of the research. Hard to observe babies because they aren't well co-ordinated. Small gestures and changes in expression are observed. Also hard to interpret meaning of babies' movements. This means we cannot be certain that any particular interactions observed between baby and caregiver are meaningful.
• --Difficulty inferring developmental importance. Feldman (2012) points out synchrony (and reciprocity) simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time. These are robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed, but this may not be useful as it does not tell us about their purpose. This means that we cannot be certain from observations that reciprocity or synchrony are important in development.
• --Practical value versus ethics. Research into early interaction has allowed psychologists to improve that quality of caregiver-infant attachment. However, this research is socially sensitive because it can be used to argue mothers should just focus on interacting with their bby and not return to work. This means that the practical value may be outweighed by negative social consequences.