Caregiver-infant interactions

• What is reciprocity?

  Back and forth exchanges between infants and care-givers e.g. infant smiles, care-giver smiles back
• Who studied reciprocity?

  Tronick
• What did Tronick do in his study?

  Mothers were told to have zero interaction with their infants to see how they react.
• What did Tronick find in his study?

  Babies try to tempt their care-givers into interacting with them and become distressed when they don't, meaning the expect a response
• What is interactional synchrony?

  Care-givers and infants moving in time or rhythm with each other
• Who studied interactional synchrony?

  Meltzoff and Moore
• How did Meltzoff and Moore conduct their study?

  Infants were presented with 3 different facial expressions while using a dummy. The dummy was removed once the presentation was over
• What did Meltzoff and Moore find?

  Infants attempted to imitate the facial expressions presented to them, which means there is an association between the infant and model's behaviour
• What are the strengths of caregiver-infant interaction research?

  • Insight into early attachment
  • Controlled lab environments
  • No demand characteristics
• What are the limitations of caregiver-infant interactions research?

  • Tronick's study was unethical - caused distress for the infants
  • Lacked ecological validity in a lab and using images
  • Participant variables
  • Ethnocentric study - does not apply to all cultures