Caregiver-Infant Interactions AO3

• +Filmed observations 1/2

  One strength of Cll is that they're usually performed in a laboratory so other activity that may distract the baby can be controlled. Using films means that it can be recorded and studied later, leading it to be unlikely for researchers to miss seeing key behaviours. It being recorded means that move than one researcher will be able to analyse it and record data & establish the inte—rater reliability of observations.
• +Filmed observations 2/2

  Babies don't know that they're being observed so they don't develop any demand characteristics which is usually the main problem for overt observations. Therefore, data collected should have good reliability & validity.
• -Difficulty Observing babies

  One weakness of CII is that it’s difficult to interpret a baby's behaviour. Young babies lack co-ordination and much of their bodies are also immobile. Babies are limited to small hand movements or subtle changes in expression which can make it difficult to distinguish between how they feel. Its also difficult to determine whats going on from the baby's perspective. eg. a hand movement may be a twitch twitch or it can be something triggered by what the caregiver has done as a response. So we can't be certain that the behaviours seen in CII have a special meaning.
• -Developmental importance

  Another limitation of the CIl is that simply observing a behaviour won't tell us its developmental function importance.

  Feldman points out that ideas like synchrony ( and reciprocity) simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver & infant behaviours. These are robust phenomena- they can be reliably observed; they may still not be particularly useful in understanding chid development as it doesn't tell us the purpose of these behaviours. We can't be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity & synchrony are important for a child’s development.
• -+There is evidence from other research that argues early interactions are important. Isabella found that achievement of interactional synchrony preclicted the development of good quality attachment. Arguing that CII is important for development.