Caregiver- infant interactions evaluation

• LIMITATION

  • observations did not tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity
  • ex. Feldman points out that synchrony and reciprocity are simply described behaviours that occur at the same time
  • these can be reliably observed, but it doesn't tell us the purpose of these interactions
  • further research is needed to explain the purpose of the interactions
• LIMITATION

  • findings of Meltzoff and Moore are difficult to test infant behaviours
  • infants mouths are constantly moving, so it's hard to tell between general activity and specific imitation behaviours
  • poor internal validity of the data
  • they have overcome this problem by filming infant responses and asking an observer to judge the infants from a video
  • increases the validity because the observer does not know what was being studied
  • film observations can in increase internal validity
• LIMITATION

  • not found in all cultures
  • Le Vine et al reported that Kenyan mothers have little physical interactions or contact with their infants
  • some infants do have a high proportion of secure attachment
  • research may be ethnocentric and ignore how attachments may be formed within other cultures
  • reduces the validity as all cultures should be considered to generalise