Caregiver-infant interactions

• What is an attachment?

  • Close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security
• What is proximity in relation to attachment?

  People will try to stay as physically close to their attachment figure
• What is separation distress in relation to attachment?

  Separation distress is where people show signs of anxiety when an attachment figure leaves their presence
• What is secure-base behaviour in relation to attachment?

  Even when we are independent of our attachment figures we tend to make regular contact with them
• What is reciprocity?

  • An interaction shows reciprocity when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them
  • E.g. a caregiver might respond to a baby's smile by saying something and then this in turn elicits a response from the baby
• What is the alert phase in relation to reciprocity?

  • Babies have 'alert phases' when they signal (e.g. eye contact) that they are ready for interaction
  • Feldman and Eidelman show that mothers typically pick up on and respond to their baby's alertness around two-thirds of the time, this varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress
  • From around three months this interaction tends to become increasingly frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each other's verbal and facial expressions
• What is reciprocity in terms of active involvement?

  • Traditional views of childhood portrayed babies in a passive role, receiving care from an adult. However, it seems that babies as well as caregivers actually take quite an active role
  • Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so. Brazelton et al described this interaction as a 'dance' because it is just like a couple's dance where each partner responds to the other person's moves.
• What is interactional synchrony?

  • Interactional synchrony is the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour (Feldman)
  • It takes place when caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other
• More on interactional synchrony:

  • Meltzoff and Moore:
  • Beginnings of interactional synchrony as young as two weeks old
  • Babies' expression and gestures were more likely to mirror adults' expression and gestures than chance would predict
  • Isabella et al:
  • Observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed degree of synchrony and quality of attachment
  • They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment
• Evaluations: Filmed observations

  P - One strength of the research on this topic is the use of filmed observations

  E - Mother-baby interactions are usually filmed, often from multiple angles. Very fine details of behaviour can be recorded and analysed for later.

  E - Also babies don't know they are being observed, so their behaviour does not change in response to observation (generally the main problem for observational research)

  L - This means the studies have good reliability and validity
• Evaluations: Difficulty in observing babies

  P - One limitation for the research is the difficulty in observing babies

  E - It is hard to observe babies' behaviour because they are not very co-ordinated. We just observe small gestures and small changes in expression.

  E - It is also hard to interpret the meaning of babies' movements, e.g. deciding if a hand movement is a response to the caregiver or a random twitch

  L - This means we cannot be certain that any interactions observed between baby and caregiver are meaningful
• Evaluations: Difficulty inferring developmental importance

  P - Another limitation is difficulty inferring developmental importance

  E - Feldman points out that synchrony (and reciprocity) simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time.

  E - These are robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed, but this may not be useful as it does not tell us their purpose

  L - This means that we cannot be certain from observations that reciprocity or synchrony are important in development
• Evaluations: Difficulty inferring developmental importance- counterpoint

  • There is some evidence from other sources, e.g. Isabella et al (1989), to suggest that good levels of reciprocity and synchrony are associated with good quality attachments
  • This means that, on balance, these early interactions are likely to have importance for development.
• Evaluations: Practical value vs ethics

  P - The research can have negative social consequences

  E - Research into early interactions has allowed psychologists to improve the quality of caregiver-infant attachment, for example by Parent Child interaction Therapy.

  E - However, this kind of research is socially sensitive because it can be used to argue that mothers should focus just on interacting with their baby and not return to work

  L - This means that the practical value may be outweighed by its negative social consequences