caregiver-infant interactions

• attachment is a connection/bond that develops when you care for someone
• there are two types of caregiver-infant interactions: reciprocity (conversation) and interactional synchrony (mimicking)
• reciprocity lays the foundation for attachment to build. caregivers and baby’s interact and get a response from eachother from around 3 months and it involves close attention to verbal signals and facial expressions. the baby is not a passive receiver but also has an active role like a conversation
• interactional synchrony is when the caregiver and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated, synchronised way
• research to support reciprocity is troniks still face experiment
• troniks experiment starts with active reciprocity between the infant and mum. the mum then stops responding and goes still face. the baby uses everything to try and get mums interaction back but gets no response which causes the baby to become distressed
• troniks experiment shows baby’s responses to their environment and how emotions and interactions are important as well as the importantance of reciprocity between their attachment figures
• research support for interactional synchrony is mestoff and moores face expression experiment.
• mestoff and moore observed interactions from as young as 2 weeks old. they had an adult display one of 3 facial expressions; tongue out, straight face and open mouth. the babys response was observed
• mestoff and moore found that in their experiment the infants were able to imitate and copy the adults expression which supports the idea of interactional synchrony
• The Schaffer stages of attachment are a theory that describes the stages an infant goes through as they develop attachments to other people
• the first stage is the asocial stage which last from birth to around 6 weeks. babies are starting to recognise and form bonds. their behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is similar. they may show some preference to adults who calm them
• the second stage is indiscriminate attachment which lasts from 2-7 months. babies will start to prefer people over inanimate objects and can recognise and prefer familiar adults. they accept comfort from any adult
• the third stage is specific attachment which occurs from 7 months. infants begin to show a preference for one primary caregiver. they begin displaying stranger and separation anxiety and look to particular people for security, comfort and protection
• the fourth stage is multiple attachment which begins from 10/11 months. infants start to form multiple attachments with several different people. 29% have a secondary attachment within one month of forming a primary one
• schaffer and emerson aimed to investigate the formation of early attachment and the age at which they develop
• schaffer and emerson investigated 60 babies from working class families in glasgow. the babies and mothers were visited everyday for the first year and again at 18 months and asked about the babies seperation anxiety.
• schaffer and emerson found that between 25 and 32 weeks 50% of babies started showing seperation anxiety and by 80% of babies had a specific attachment
• strengths of schaffer and emerson experiment include: high external validity and a longitudinal design
• weakness of schaffer and emerson experiment includes: limited sample characteristics which limit generalisability
• schaffer and emersons experiment led them to devise the stages of attachment in infants
• strengths of observations into caregiver-infant interactions are:

  -use well controlled procedures

  -rarely any demand characteristic or changes to behaviour to fit in ect

  these mean they have good validity
• limitations when observing caregiver-infant interactions:

  -may not be deliberate

  -don’t know meaning of infants actions
• schaffer and emerson found that majority of babies become attached to their mother first at around 7 month. then in 75% of infants an attachment was formed with the father by 18 months
• grossman et al conducted a longitudinal study on parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of childrens attachments in their teens. they found when a baby only had an attachment with mum baby formed bad quality of attachment during adolescence but the quality of fathers play was related to quality of adolescence attachments. fathers have a different role in attachment
• field filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with the primary caregiver mother, secondary caregiver father and primary caregiver father and found primary fathers spent more time smiling and holding their infants which shows they can be the nurturing attachment figure
• field and grossman are strengths for the significance of the role of the father and state that they play and important role
• schaffer and emerson shows a weakness of the significance of the role of the father and shows babies have a preference to form their primary attachment with their mum
• • Isabella et al. (1989) found, during a study of 30 mothers and their babies, that those with higher levels of synchrony had a more secure attachment