Caregiver- infant interaction

• What is meant by attachment?

  Infants and caregivers develop deep and emotional bonds where both seek closeness.
• what is reciprocity?

  turn-taking form of interaction where both caregiver and infant respond to each others signals and cues
• what is interactional synchrony?

  a simultaneous interaction between caregiver and infant with coordinated behaviour and matching emotional states
• what are examples of interactions?

  • sensitive responsiveness
  • child-directed speech
  • body contact
• what is sensitive responsiveness?

  caregiver correctly interprets meaning of infants communication and is motivated to respond appropriately
• what is child-directed speech?

  a certain voice modulation that helps keep infants attention
• who was the key psychologists for reciprocity evidence?

  meltzoff and Moore 1977
• what was the procedure to meltzoff and Moores experiment ?

  • experimenter displayed facial gestures such as sticking tongue out to 12-21 day old infants
  • recordings of infants responses rated by people blind to the experiment.
• what were the findings to the meltzoff and moores experiment?

  • found infant responses matching experimenters facial expressions
  • suggests infants ability to reciprocate through imitation present at early age
• what is interactional synchrony important for?

  development of mother-infant attachment
• who was the key psychologist for interactional synchrony evidence?

  Isabella et al 1989
• explain Isabella’s procedure?

  • observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed degree of synchrony
  • also assessed quality of mother-infant attachment
• what did isabella find?

  High levels of synchrony associated with better quality mother-infant attachment
• Evaluate difficult to interpret infant behaviour as a limitation?

  • Many studies involving observations of interactions have shown same patterns.
  • What is being observed is hand movements or changes in expression.
  • It is difficult to be certain what is happening from infants perspective
• evaluate controlled observations capture fine detail as a strength?

  • often both mother and infant are filmed from different angles.
  • ensures that fine details of behaviour can be recorded and later analysed.
  • babies don’t know or care they’re being observed so their behaviour does not change