Caregiver infant interactions

• What is an attachment?

  a strong long lasting emotional bond that forms between newborns and their primary caregivers.
• what are the three features of attachment?

  safe base behaviour

  
  

  separation anxiety

  
  

  stranger anxiety
• What is safe base behaviour?

  when infants treat their caregiver as someone they can quickly return to when they are scared or anxious.

  
  

  when a child treats a caregiver as a safe base they are willing to explore and interact with unfamiliar surroundings but only when the caregiver is nearby.
• what is separation anxiety?

  when children become distressed when they are separated from their attachment figure.
• what is stranger anxiety?

  the distress displayed by infants when encountering an unfamiliar person, as they prefer their attachment figure.
• why is research into attachment difficult?

  independent variables being studied are usually unethical to be manipulated.

  
  

  babies cannot self report

  
  

  babies cannot give informed consent

  
  

  it is difficult to interpret infant behaviour as they lack coordination
• what types of experiments are usually performed in attachment research?

  natural/quasi and animal experiments.
• what experimental technique is used in attachment research and why?

  observational as babies cant self report.
• what is frame by frame video analysis?

  observations are recorded and can be rewatched to pinpoint behaviours and make detailed observations of each frame.
• what are the strengths of frame by frame analysis?

  increased inter-rater reliability as footage can be rewatched and examined by others.

  
  

  covert observations can increase the naturalness and eliminate demand characteristics as well as removing distractions.
• what are the weaknesses of frame by frame analysis?

  it is time consuming and behaviour is still difficult to interpret.
• what is a longitudinal study?

  A study that collects data from the same people at more than one point in time.
• what are the strengths of longitudinal studies?

  they give us deeper insight into behaviours by seeing how it changes over time

  
  

  give us insight into how early experiences shape behaviour

  
  

  lead to more reliable results.
• what are the weaknesses of longitudinal studies?


  attrition - people can drop out leading to a smaller sample size

  
  

  it takes a long time
• what are the strengths of animal studies?

  fewer ethical limitations.
• what are the weaknesses of animal studies?

  results may not generalise to humans

  
  

  can cause distress to the animals which is seen as unethical however if we say it doesn't cause distress to animals we are accepting that animals are different to humans which limits the generalisability of the findings.
• what are the strengths of natural/quasi experiments?


  they allow us to investigate IVs that would be unethical to manipulate.
• what are the weaknesses of natural/quasi experiments?

  there is no control over extraneous variables.
• what is reciprocity?

  taking turns responding to an action. brazelton described it as a dance.
• what is intersectional synchrony?

  the temporal coordination of micro level social behaviour. when caregiver and baby's actions mirror eachother.
• who investigated interactions synchrony?

  condon and sanders 1974

  
  

  investigated the synchrony of infant movement with adult speech using frame by dram analysis and results showed babies moved in time with the rhythm of conversation.

  
  

  meltzoff and moore 1977

  
  

  adults displayed 1 of 3 distinct facial expressions and the babies reactions were measured and recorded for frame by frame analysis from which a significant association was made between the child and adult.
• what are the strengths of the studies into interactional synchrony and reciprocity?

  frame by frame analysis
• what are the weaknesses of research into interactional synchrony and reciprocity?

  difficulty interpretating behaviours

  
  

  we cannot be sure that caregiver-infant interactions are actually important for development as all we have done is established a pattern.

  
  

  however russel isabella's 1989 longitudinal study showed a positive relationship between caregiver infant interactions and good quality attachment.