Caregiver-infant interactions

• What is attachment defined as?

  A close emotional bond between two people, characterised by a mutual affection and a desire to maintain proximity
• How many months does it take for an attachment to develop?

  A few months
• What do the two individuals in an attachment see the other as?

  Essential for their own emotional security
• What three behaviours show an attachment has formed?

  Proximity

  Separation distress

  Secure-base behaviour
• What is proximity?

  Where people try to stay physically close to those they are attached to
• What is separation distress?

  Where people are distressed and anxious when an attachment figure leaves their presence
• What is secure-base behaviour?

  Where even when we are independent of our attachment figures, we make regular contact with them
• When do babies display secure-base behaviour?

  When they regularly return to their attachment figure while playing
• From an early age, babies have meaningful social interactions with carers
• What is reciprocity?

  How two people interact which helps facilitate an attachment
• How is a mother-infant interaction reciprocal?

  As the infant and mother respond to each other's signals and each elicit a response from the other
• From birth, babies and their mothers spend a lot of time in intense and highly pleasurable interaction
• What is a reciprocal interaction also known as?

  'Turn-taking'
• What are Alert Phases?

  Periodic; signals a baby is ready for interaction
• How much of the time do mothers typically pick up on alert phases?

  2/3
• Who said that mothers typically pick up on alert phases 2/3 of the time?

  Feldman and Eidelman
• What does a mothers ability to pick up on alert phases vary according to?

  The skill of the mother and external factors
• From when does interaction tend to be more frequent?

  3 months
• What did Brazelton describe interaction as and why?

  A 'dance' because each partner responds to the other's moves
• Babies take an active role rather than passive in attachment
• What is interaction synchrony defined by Feldman as?

  'The temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour'
• When does interactional synchrony take place?

  When caregiver and baby interact in a way that their actions and emotions mirror each other
• When are two people said to be synchronised?

  When they carry out the same action simultaneously
• When did Meltzoff and Moore observe interactional synchrony?

  As young as 2 weeks old
• Who observed interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old?

  Meltzoff and Moore
• What did the adult do in Meltzoff and Moore's observation into interactional synchrony?

  Displayed one of three facial expressions
• What did Meltzoff and Moore find in their observation into interactional synchrony?

  Babies' expression were more likely to mirror those of the adults than chance would predict
• What did Isabella et al. observe?

  30 mothers and infants together
• What did Isabella et al. assess?

  The degree of synchrony between 30 mothers and infants
• What did researchers in Isabella et al.'s observation also assess?

  The quality of mother-infant attachment
• Who showed that interactional synchrony is important for the development of mother-infant attachment?

  Isabella et al.