?caregiver- infant interactions

• Describe and evaluate research into caregiver-infant interactions 16mks

  • caregiver- interactions intro
  • reciprocity
  • interactional synchrony
  • ao3 most studies were filmede observations in labs
  • ao3 difficulty observing babies
  • ao3 observation doesnt tell you about its developmental importance
• • caregiver- interactions intro
  • Psychologists believe that the social interactions babies have with their cares have important functions for a child’s social development
  • Good quality social interactions are associated with the successful development of attachment between the caregiver and infants
• • reciprocity
  • ~ when each person responds to the other and elicts a response from them. (turn-taking)
  • e.g. caregiver may respond to the baby’s smile by saying something which will elict a response from the baby
  • this was shown by
  • alert phases
  • active involvement
• reciprocity : alert phases

  • alert phases
  • Where babies signal (e.g. make eye contact) that they are ready for interaction
  • Research shows that mothers tend to pick up on and respond to their baby’s alertness 2/3 of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007)
  • This varies according to the skill of mother and external factors e.g. stress (Finegood et al 2016)
  • From around 3 months , this interactions become more frequent and involves both mother and infant paying close attention to to each others verbal signals and facial expressions (Feldman 2007)
• reciprocity: active involvement

  • active involvement
  • Traditional views of childhood have portrayed babies to have a passive role - receive care from adults
  • But it is shown that both babies and caregivers take on an active role
  • Both can initiate interactions and take turns doing so
  • T.Berry Brazelton et al (1975) described this interaction as a ‘dance’- its like a couple’s dance where each partner responds to the other person's moves
• • interactional synchrony
  • ~ caregiver and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the and do this in a synchronised way I.e. carry out the same action simultaneously- by mirroring their actions and emotions
  • Also described as ‘ the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour’ ( Feldman 2007)
• interactional synchrony : synchrony begins

  • Meltzoff and Keith Moore (1977) obsereved the begining of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks
  • Adult displayed one of 3 facial expressions or on distinctive hand gesturesn
  • Babies response was filmed and labelled by independent observers
  • Found babies expression aand gestures are more likely to mirror adults as there was a significant association
• • interactional synchrony :importance for attachment
  • Its believed that interactional synchrony is importsnt for the development of the caregiver-infant attachement
  • Rusell Isabella et al (1989) obsereved 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchroncy
  • Researchers are also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment
  • Found higher levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment (e.g. the emotional intensity of the relationship)
• • ao3 most studies were filmede observations in labs
  • Means that other activity that might distract a baby can be controlled
  • Means observations can be recorded and analysed later
  • So unlikely that researchers will miss seeing key behaviors
  • Filming means that more than one observer can record data and establish their inter-rater reliabilty of observations
  • Babies don’t knpw their observed – so behaviour doesn’t change in response to observation
  • This is the main problem for over observations
  • .. therefore data collected in such research should have good reliability
• • ao3 difficulty observing babies
  • Hard to interpret baibies’ behaviour
  • They lack co-ordination and are often immoblie – their movements and expressions are subtle
  • So it difficult to be sure
  • Difficult to determine from the babies POV
  • Cant tell whether a baby reaction was random or it was triggered by something the caregiver did
  • … this means we cant be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interaction has a special meaning
• ao3 observation doesnt tell you about its developmental importance(1/2)

  • Feldman (2012) points out that ideas like synchrony give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behviours
  • These are phenomenas – they can be reliably observed but may not be useful in understanding child development because it deosnt tell us the purpose of these behviouirs
  • … means we cant be certain that the observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important in development
• ao3 observation doesnt tell you about its developmental importance (2/2)

  • However, theres other research that suggest that early interactions are important
  • e.g. Isabella et al (1989) found that achievement of interactional synchrony predicted the development of good quality attachment
  • … means that caregiver-infant interactions is important in development when balanced