caregiver & infant

• infancy 


  the period of a child's life before speech begins , usually first 1-2 years
• attachment 


  a close emotional relationship that exists between two persons characterised by mutual affection and a desire to maintain proximity
• Maccoby (1980) 4 key behaviours 


  -seeking proximity to primary caregiver

  -both caregiver & infant experience distress on separation

  -both experience pleasure on being reunited

  -using the caregiver as a safe base for exploration
• interactions and attachment 


  interaction between caregiver and infant forms basis of attachment, the more sensitive they are to each others signals the deeper the attachment
• 2 types of non verbal interaction

  reciprocity and interactional synchrony
• reciprocity 


  responding to an action with another action

  infants coordinate their actions with their caregivers, similar to a conversation
• importance of reciprocity 


  its suggested that this basic rhythm builds the skills needed for later communications. the regularity of an infants signals allows a caregiver to anticipate the infants behaviour and respond appropriately. the sensitivity of the caregiver to infant behaviour lays the foundation for later attachment between the caregiver and the infant
• interactional synchrony 


  when the mother and infant interact they tend to mirror what the other is doing with their facial and body movements

  infants imitate their caregivers behaviour on purpose and its important for development of attachment
• differences with R and IS

  R - a response , response can be similar or different to the original reaction & happens shortly after the original reaction

  IA - an imitation (mirroring), response is the same, imitation can happen at the same time
• interaction synchrony - key study, Meltzoff and Moore 1977


  -controlled observation on infants and caregivers

  -chose 4 different stimuli (3 different faces plus a hand gesture where the fingers moved in a sequence)2-3 week old infants were presented with one of the 3 facial expressions or the hand movement from an adult model
• researchers filmed infants response to the facial expressions, video judged by independent observers who had no knowledge of what infant had seen


  filmed = inter-observer reliability

  no knowledge = prevent expectancy effect and observer bias
• inter-observer reliability 


  calculated by correlating the 2 observers scores, a result of +0.80 suggests good inter-observer reliabilty
• findings and conclusions - Meltzoff and Moore

  infants as young as 2-3 weeks old imitated specific facial and hand gestures = supporting idea of interactional synchrony
• evaluation - strength

  most research into interaction uses controlled observations = good internal validity
• evaluation - weakness

  behavior is observed in controlled environment - may not reflect real world infant behavior = research may lack ecological validity
• evaluation - strength

  the research has important implications

  there is evidence that R and IS are important in development of attachment, empathy, moral reasoning and language - important its studied due to having important real life implications for parenting
• supporting evidence for importance of IS in attachment

  Isabella (1989) observed 30 mothers and infants together - assessed their degree of synchrony and the quality of attachment = high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachment - suggesting a relationship between closeness of synchrony and strength of attachment
• cause and effect

  research is correlation = cause and effect cant be inferred

  may be that high levels of IS cause quality attachments OR that having a good quality attachment increases levels of synchrony - other factors could also be involved
• theory of IS argues that infants imitate caregiver behavior on purpose - evidence its intentional


  Murray and Treverthen (1985)

  1. 2 month old children interact with their mothers via a video monitor in real time
  2. repeated again - with a pre-recorded video of the mother (mother couldn't respond to the infants facial and bodily gestures
• findings of Murray and Treverthen 


  infants became very distressed when watching video in 2nd condition , after trying to attract the mothers interests and failing they become disinterested and turn away
• conclusion of Murray and Treverthen 


  distress shows infant is actively trying to get a response - suggests infant is an active and intentional partner in the mother-infant interaction