Reciprocity + Synchrony

• What is Reciprocity ?

  how infant and mother respond to each other: one signals and the other responds

  Brazleton et al describes the interaction as a "couples dance" where each partner responds to each others moves
• What is Interactional Synchrony?


  mother and infant reflect both actions and emotions of the other in a synchronised and coordinated way
• AO3 of caregiver-infant interactions


  - subjective as babies expression may have no meaning

  - observations don't tell us why there is reciprocity and interational synchrony

  - it is socially sensitive as Isabelle et al's study shows that mothers should not go to work

  + controlled observations
• Meltzoff and Moore

  • observed interactional synchrony in children as young as 2 weeks old
  • an adult displayed one of 3 facial expressions or gestures
  • child's response was filmed and identified by independent observers
  • found a link between adults gesture and babies actions
• Isabelle et al. study

  • observed 30 mothers and their infant
  • assessed the quality of the attachment and their level of synchrony
  • high levels of synchrony meant better quality of mother infant attachment
• Meltzoff and Moore evaluation

  • high ecological validity: babies were too young to know they were being filmed so the responses given were what they would usually do in their day-to-day lives
  • high internal validity: asked an observer who didn't know the behaviour was imitated to judge the baby's behaviour
  • data uses assumptions: babies have poor control over their body and move randomly, so it cannot be said whether their behaviour is intentional or random movement
• Isabella et al. evaluation

  • beta bias: only looked at mother relationships and not father even though they can also be the primary caregiver, not generalisable
  • subjective: "quality of attachment" varies culturally as well as between child-rearing methods so is not an accurate measure of the attachment between mother and caregiver