Caregiver Infant Interactions

• what is attachment?

  a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security
• what does it take for an attachment to form?

  • a few months to develop
  • the relationship is reciprocal meaning that it is a two-way relationship that endures over time
• why are caregiver and infant interactions the subject of psychological research?

  as they provide an insight into the type and nature of attachment
• how can attachment be recognised?

  • proximity - child will stay close to the care-giver
  • separation distress - chile will be upset when care-giver leaves
  • secure base behaviour - chile will frequently return to the caregiver e.g. when playing
• what is reciprocity?

  • when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them; when the baby responds to the care-giver in a form of turn-taking, e.g. mother smiles and then the baby smiles in response
  • involves paying close attention to each others verbal signals and facial expressions
• how does Brezelton et al (1975) describe reciprocity?

  • like a “dance” because it is just like a couples dance where each partner responds to each others moves
• what are alert phases?

  • this is what babies have, where they signal with social releases that they are ready to interact e.g. making eye contact
  • research shows mothers pick up on this signal around two-thirds of the time
  • babies therefore take an active role in these interactions
• what are the foundations for attachment?

  • form around 3 months old
  • according to Feldman (2007) reciprocity increases in frequency as infant and caregiver pay increasing attention to each others verbal and facial communications
  • it’s suggested that being responsive and sensitive to the infants behaviour, will lay strong foundations for attachment to develop and is linked to child’s intelligence
• what is interactional synchrony?

  • when baby mirrors their caregivers actions or emotions
  • this mirroring can also be referred to as imitation or simply copying the adults behaviour
  • child will move their body or carry out the same act as their caregiver simultaneously and the two are said to be synchronised
• what was the aim and findings of the Meltzoff and Moore (1977) study?

  • examine interactional synchrony in infants using a controlled observation
  • an adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures
  • babies response was filmed and labelled by independent observers
  • observed beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old
  • babies expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of adults than chance would predict (there was a significant association)
• what is the importance of interactional synchrony?

  • important for development of caregiver-infant interactions
  • Isabella et al (1989) - observed 30 mothers and babies and assessed the degree of synchrony the researchers also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment
  • she found high levels of synchrony associated with better quality mother-baby attachment
• what are strengths of using lab studies?

  • other activity, that might distract a baby (extraneous variables), can be controlled
  • using film means observations can be recorded and analysed later - unlikely observers and researchers will miss seeing key behaviour
  • more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations
  • babies don’t know they’re being observed - behaviour doesn‘t change in response to observation (a problem of overt observations)
  • means study has high reliability’s and validity
• what are the practical applications of Isabel et al (1989)?

  • mothers could be encouraged to devote time each day to developing interactional synchrony with their child in order to improve their attachments with their child
• why are situational variables affective to baby behaviour?

  baby’s behaviour is affected by time of day, tiredness, hunger, and discomfort, so behaviour may not be typical during observation
• why is the development of a baby a weakness of studies?

  development is individual and not all babies of the same age have the same capabilities, which makes comparisons difficult
• what are some other weaknesses of the validity these studies?

  • behaviour may be different with presence of different caregivers (mum or dad)
  • we can’t be certain that the infants observed are actually engaging in the interactional synchrony or reciprocity, as some of the behaviour may have occurred by chance
  • this calls in to question the validity of research as they can’t be sure they are measuring caregiver-infant interactions or something else
• what are some weaknesses of the reliability of these studies?

  • infants move their mouths and wave their arms constantly, which is an issue for researchers investigating intentional behaviour as it can be difficult to accurately and consistently record the behaviours
  • possibility of observer bias - introduces bias into research process - to address this problem, more than one observer should be used to examine the inter-observer reliability of the observations (this is done by Meltzoff & Moore)
• why is external reliability a weakness of caregiver-infant interaction studies?

  • recent research by Koepke et al (1983) failed to replicate the findings of Meltzoff & Moore
  • this lack of research support suggests that Meltzoff & Moore results are unreliable and more research is required to validate their findings