Caregiver infant interactions

• Attachment is a 2 way reciprocal, emotional bond between two individuals.
• Attachment is characterised by:

  • proximity (staying physically close)
  • separation distress
  • secure base behaviour (making regular contact with each other)
• Alert phases and active involvement are needed for reciprocity to take place.
• Reciprocity is an interaction (a two-way mutual process) when the infant and caregiver will take it in turns to respond to each others signals to sustain the interaction. The behaviour of each person elicits a response from the other. This serves to reinforce the attachment bond.
• Alert phases:

  • at periodical times, babies signal that they're ready for an interaction
• Active involvement:

  • both the caregivers and the babies initiate interactions and take turns in doing so.
  • Brazelton et al described this as a dance where each partner responds to the other person's moves.
• Interactional synchrony is when the adult and the infant mirror the actions of each other in a synchronised way acting as 'one person'. Adults and infants should respond in time to sustain communication and interactional synchrony also serves to reinforce the attachment bond.
• Importance of interactional synchrony in attachment:

  • Isabella et al observed 30 mothers and babies and assessed the degree of synchrony and the quality of mother-infant attachment. Found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment.
• strength: research takes place in a controlled environment. The caregiver and infant are usually filmed in a laboratory. This means that the other activity which might distract babies can be controlled. Inter-rater reliability of observations can also be established. This increases the validity and reliability of the research into caregiver-infant interactions.
• There are practical issues of research into caregiver-infant interactions as babies spend long periods asleep which can limit the time available for research. By studying the baby when it is not fully awake, it may decrease the validity of the investigation. However, this could be dealt with by having more observation periods, but for shorter time periods.