Caregiver-infant interactions

• What is reciprocity?


  A description of how two people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each others signals and each elicits a response from the other.
• what is interactional synchrony? 


  caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way.
• What is caregiver-infant interactions?

  From birth babies have a good social interaction with their caregivers. Psychology believe that these interactions have important functions for the child’s social development. Good quality early social interactions are associated with the successful development of attachments between babies and their caregivers.
• how does an interaction show reciprocity's? 


  from birth babies and their mothers spend a lot of time in intense and highly pleasurable interaction. This shows reciprocity’s as when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them.
• What is turn-taking?(reciprocity)


  A caregiver might respond to a baby’s smile by saying something and then this in turn elicits a response from the baby. This is essential in any part of conversation so people don’t talk over each other.
• What are alert phases? (reciprocity)


  When babies signal (eye contact) that they are ready for a spell of interaction.
• what does Feldman and Eidelman (2007) and finegood et al (2016) say about alert phases? (reciprocity)


  That mothers typically pick up on and respond to their baby’s alertness around 2/3 of the time (f+e), although this varies according to the skill of the mother and the external factors such as stress (f 2016)
• What does Feldman 2007 say about alert phases? (reciprocity)


  That from around three months this interaction tends to become increasingly frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each others verbal signals and facial expressions.
• What is active involvement? (Reciprocity's) 


  Traditional views of childhood have portrayed babies in passive role, receiving care from an adult. However, it seems both babies as well as caregivers actually take quite an active role. Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns doing so.
• What does T.berry Brazelton et al (1975) says about alert about active involvement? (Reciprocity)


  Described the interaction as a ‘dance’ because it is just like a couples dances where each partner responds to the other persons moves.
• How does Feldman (2007) define interactional synchrony? 


  The temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour.
• When does interactional synchrony take place in caregiver-infant interactions? 


  when caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other.
• Andrew Meltzoff and Keith Moore (1977) experiment on interactional synchrony (IS).


  Observed the beginning of IS in babies as young as 2 weeks old. An adult displayed one of three facial experiments or distinctive expressions. The baby’s response was filmed and labelled by independent observers. Babies expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict.
• Why is attachment important in Interactional synchrony?


  Is it believed to be important for the development of caregiver-infant attachment.
• Russell Isabella et al (1989) experiment on the importance of attachment (interaction synchrony)


  Observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony. They also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment. They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment.
• Filmed observation-STRENGTH


  Normally filmed in a lab

  Means that other activity that could distract a baby can be controlled. Observations can be recorded and analysed later. This means that more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations. Finally babies don’t know they are being observed, so their behaviour does not change in response to observation.

  Therefore, data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity.
• Difficulty observing babies-LIMITATION


  Hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour.

  Young babies lack of co-ordination and much of their bodies are immobile. The movements observed are small hand movements and changes in facial expressions. It is difficult to determine what is taking place in a babies perspective.

  This means we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning.
• Developmental importance- LIMITATION 


  Simply observing a behaviour does not tell us its developmental importance.

  Ruth Feldman (2012), points out that ideas like synchrony simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours. They can be reliable to observe but not useful in understanding child development as it does not tell us the purpose of these behaviours.

  This means we cannot be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child’s development.
• Developmental importance- SUPPORT


  There is evidence from other lines of research to suggest that early interactions are important.

  Isabella et al (1989) found that achievement of interactional synchrony predicted the development of a good quality attachment.

  This means that on balance, caregiver-infant interactions is probably important in development.
• EVALUATION- practical value versus ethics- BOTH

  • Research into early caregiver-infant interaction has practical application in parenting skills training. EG Crotwell et al (2013) found that a 10-minute Parent-Child Interactional Therapy (PCIT) improved interactional synchrony in 20 low-income mothers and their pre-school children
  • However, research into caregiver-infant interaction is socially sensitive because it can be used to argue that when a mother returns to work soon after having a baby this may risk damaging their baby’s development