introduction

• define attachment

  strong emotional bond between two people
• define caregiver

  someone who provides care for a child
• define caregiver-infant interactions

  communication between caregiver and infant for social development
• define reciprocity

  two-way mutual process
• define interactional synchrony

  reflection of actions and emotions in a coordinated way
• what's the importance of caregiver-infant interactions?

  • development of future relationships
  • stress response
  • empathy
  • moral and language development
• what are the 2 caregiver-infant interactions?

  1. reciprocity
  2. interactional synchrony
• explain reciprocity


  behaviour of each individual elicits response from the other

  • caregiver or infant can initiate interaction
  • precursor to later communication enables caregiver to anticipate behaviour and respond appropriately
• what did feldman & eidelman find to support reciprocity?


  reciprocity can be seen in interactions from 3 months of age
• outline the findings of finegood et al to support reciprocity


  mothers respond to alertness around 2/3 of the time

  • external factors can play a part
• explain what brazelton found in support of reciprocity


  basic rhythm is important precursor to communication and regularity of signals

  • caregiver can anticipate behaviour and respond appropriately
• outline what interactional synchrony is

  mirroring each other in terms of their facial and body movement

  • imitation
• what did isabella et al find to support interactional synchrony?


  the more securely attached the infant was then the greater level of interactional synchrony

  • does suggest not all children engage
• explain what meltzoff & moore found to support interactional synchrony


  found a strong correlation between parent's expression and infant's reaction
• what did meltzoff and moore set out to observe?

  beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as 2 weeks old
• outline the method that meltzoff & moore used

  1. adults displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions
  2. infant watched and their reaction was filmed
  3. judges rated behaviour of 2 to 3 week old babies for likeness of target behaviour
• what were the results of meltzoff and moore's study?

  significant correlation between expression and response
• outline one advantage of meltzoff and moore's study into attachment

  no demand characteristics

  • babies are tested so unaware of aims
  • increases internal validity
• outline one disadvantage of meltzoff and moore's study into attachment

  methodological problems

  • observations
  • risk of observer bias
  • require more than one observer to examine inter-observer reliability
• outline the second disadvantage of meltzoff and moore's study into attachment

  challenging evidence

  • koepke failed to replicate their findings
  • lack of conclusive evidence
  • undermines reliability of theory