caregiver-infant interactions

• define attachment


  an emotional tie or bond between two people (usually primary caregiver and infant)

  - reciprocal and endures over a period of time
• what behaviours does attachment lead to

  - clinging

  - proximity seeking

  - protection of the infant
• why are caregiver-interactions important

  - infants can't speak

  - rely on non-verbal communication

  - the more sensitive to each others signals = deeper relationship
• what is reciprocity


  - infant responds to actions of a person in form of turn-taking

  - baby has alert phases > indicate they are ready for interaction (make eye contact)

  - 3 months > reciprocity increases - pay more attention to each others verbal + facial comms (Feldman)
• how does Brazelton describe reciprocity

  - babies + caregivers play active role > like a dance as they respond to each others movement + rhythm

  - interaction flows back + forth
• what is interactional synchrony

  - infant and caregiver mirror each others behaviour + emotions e.g. facial expressions

  - carry out acts simultaneously
• describe isabella et al's study into interactional synchrony

  - 30 mothers + babies assessed for degree of synchrony + attachment quality

  - high levels of sync = better quality attachment
• describe Meltzoff and Moore's study into interactional synchrony


  - controlled observation > adult model displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions + studied response of infants - behavioural categories were mouth opening + tongue potrusion

  - clear association between adult expression + babies actions (incl in 3 day old)

  - suggest int sync is innate
• describe Tronik's still face experiment

  - used to show interaction between caregivers + babies

  1. caregiver + baby interact - play, smile, communicate

  2. caregiver stops responding (still face)

  3. baby tries to get reaction - smile, point, babble

  4. baby becomes frustrated - scream and cry

  5. caregiver responds again
• a strength of caregiver-infant interaction is that they are usually filmed in a laboratory...

  - advantageous as it means other activity that may distract the baby can be controlled + recordings can be analysed later so no behaviours are missed

  - more than 1 observer can analyse recordings > inter-rater reliability

  - no demand characteristics > babies don't know they are being filmed

  - high reliability and validity - generalisable
• a limitation of caregiver-infant interactions is that it is difficult to explain behaviour from and infants pov...

  - many studies show same pattern of behaviour

  - what is being observed is only hand movements/change in expression > cannot be certain whether this is random or triggered by caregiver

  - therefore, don't know if certain behaviours have special meaning
• a limitation of caregiver-infant interactions is that they don't tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity...

  - Feldman > they only describe behaviours that occur at the same time

  - behaviours can be observed easily but don't state purpose of the behaviour or if they are important in child development

  - some evidence suggests early interactions improve quality of attachment (isabella et al) + are helpful in stress responses, empathy and language so may be important in development