caregiver-infant interactions

• what are caregiver-infant interactions

  * meaningful interactions between babies and their caregivers which are important for social development

  * good quality early social interactions = good development of attachment between babies and their caregivers
• what is reciprocity

  * one person responds to the other which then elicits a response from them (caregiver + baby)

  * pleasurable interaction between caregiver and baby

  * turn taking
• what are alert phases

  * when babies nonverbally (cry/reach out) communicate they are ready for a spell of interaction

  * mothers pick up and respond 2/3 time

  * caregivers response varies according to skill and external factors (eg : stress)

  * from 3 months = interaction more frequent
• what is active involvement

  * babies and caregivers both have an active role

  * both take turns initiating spells of interaction
• what is interactional synchrony

  the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour resulting in mirroring/synchronising behaviours/emotions
• what is a pilot study

  small sample which is used in an experiment to make sure instructions and procedure are correct. isnt actually used to receive results
• which two researchers studied interactional synchrony

  * Melzoff + Moore

  * Isabella
• Melzoff + Moore - study

  * observed interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old

  * adult displayed one of three recognisable facial expressions/gestures

  * babies response was filmed and labelled by independent observers

  * responses were more likely to mirror the adult more than chance would predict
• what is it called when a specific results occur more than chance would predict

  significant association
• Isabella - study

  * believed interactional synchrony is needed for development of caregiver-infant attachment

  * 30 mothers and their babies were assessed on their degree of synchrony + quality of attachment

  * high levels of synchrony = better quality attachment with a higher emotional intensity
• three ao3 points - caregiver infant interactions

  * filmed observations

  * Brazelton - importance of reciprocity

  * difficulty observing babies
• ao3 filmed observations - caregiver infant interactions

  * filmed in a lab setting so have controlled, standardised + reliable activities

  * filmed so can be observed more than once by more than one observer so higher inter-rater reliability

  * no demand characteristics as babies dont know they are being observed

  * higher in validity for Meltzoff + Moore study
• ao3 difficulty observing babies - caregiver infant interactions

  hard to interpret babies behaviour as they have extremely limited movement and co-ordination. this means we have to make an inference that babies are forming attachments through reciprocity and interactional synchrony which cannot be falsified. it is also difficult to determine whether an action is a result of the adult or not, as well as whether they have a special meaning. this reduces the validity of both Melzoff + Moore and Isabella’s research.
• ao3 importance of reciprocity - caregiver infant interactions

  Brazelton investigated the importance of reciprocity through the still face experiment. mother + baby would interact pleasantly + mother turned around expressionless. when turned back, looked at child with a ‘still face’; child attempted to regain her attention by reaching out/making noises. after 2 minutes, baby started crying. mother interacted again, baby instantly carried on interacting happily. conveys negative impact of reduced reciprocity = leads to long term implications (reduced development due to poor child attachments).