psychology- IS & reciprocity

• Why is reciprocity important?

  -teaches the child to communicate-allows parent to better care for the child
• What is reciprocity?


  when a person responds to the other and elicts a response from them
• What is interactional synchrony?


  when the infant and primary caregiver becomes synchronised in their interactions.
• What is attachment?

  the level of responsiveness of the caregiver to the infant's signals that has profound effects
• How does feldman describe interactional synchrony?

  the temporal co-ordination or micro-level social behaviour
• How does brazlelton describe interactional synchrony?

  as a dance- actions and emotions mirror each other
• Explain reciprocity?


  This is where a person responds and elicits a response from them. From birth mothers and babies spend a lot of intense time together. Babies have periodic ‘alert phases’ and signal that they are ready for interaction. Feldman and Eidelman said mothers typically pick up on and respond to infant alerness 2/3 of the time. Feldman said around 3 months interaction is highest. Brazelton et al described this interaction as a dance because it’s like a couple responding to each other’s moves.
• Interactional synchrony

  Two people are synchronised when they carry out the same action simultaneously
• Interactional synchrony

  • Temporal co-ordination or micro-level social behaviour
  • Takes place when the mother and infant interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror each other
• Meltzoff and Moore observed beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as 2 weeks old
• Observing interactional synchrony

  1. An adult displayed one of the 3 facial expressions

  2. The child's response was filmed

  3. Responses were identified by independent observers

  4. An association was found
• High levels of interactional synchrony

  Associated with better quality mother-infant attachments
• Isabella et al said interactional synchrony is important for the development of mother-infant attachment
• Isabella et al observed 30 mothers and infants and assessed the degree of synchrony
• Meltzoff and moore- IS?

  aim- to see what age limitation occurs in a childfindings- limitation was found in babies as young as 2 weeksprocedure- videotaped 12-21 day old babies,                  adult experimenter performed 3 different facial expressions,                  infants response filmed and identified by independant observers.conclusion- IS is innate and reduces strength of any claim that innitative behaviour is learned
• Evaluation-strengths?

  • observation filmed in a laboratory- distracting activity can be controlled and observations can be measured and observed later to avoid missing details. This means more than one observer can record data establishing inter-rater reliability of study reducing observer bias. Futhermore, babies dont know they are being observed so behaviour doesn't change in response to observation meaning overt observation isn't an issue. This a strength as data collected in such research has good reliability and high internal validity.
• Evaluation-weaknesses? a)

  • hard to interpret baby's behaviour. Babies lack co-ordination and are almost immobile, and a lot of movements being observed such as small movements or subtle changes in expression. This means it is difficult to be sure what is taking place from the infants perspective. For example, whether a baby is smiling or passing wind. We cannot be sure whether a movement such as hand twitch is random or triggered by caregiver. This is a limitation as we cannot be certain if behaviours observed in caregiver-infant interactions have special meaning.
• Evaluation-weaknesses? b)

  • simply observing behaviour does not tell us its developmental importance. Feldman points out ideas like synchrony simply gives names to patterns of observable behaviour of caregiver-infant interaction. This is a limitation as it means we cannot be certain from observational research alone reciprocity and interactional synchrony are important for a child's development