caregiver-infant interactions

• Attachment is a strong emotional tie that develops over time between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.
• We recognise attachment when the following behaviours are demonstrated:

  • Proximity
  • Separation distress
  • Secure base behaviour, where infants will regularly return to their attachment figure when playing
• Reciprocity - means the caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal so they respond to the others signals (turn taking)
• Interactional synchrony - when caregiver and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a coordinated way.
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977) first observed interactional synchrony.
• In Meltzoff and Moore's study an adult displayed one of three facial expressions or distinctive gestures. The child’s response was filmed and identified by independent observers. An association was found between the expression/gesture the adult displayed and the actions of the babies.
• Isabella et al believed interactional synchrony is important for the development of caregiver-infant interaction. They observed 30 mothers and children together and assessed their synchrony. Found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality caregiver-infant attachments
• It’s hard to know what is happening when observing infants therefore we cannot tell for certain that behaviours between caregiver-infants have special meaning.
• Observations don’t tell the observer the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity in the development of the infant
• A strength of observing infants is they’re free of demand characteristics
• Filming of young babies means fine details can be viewed again and analysed by independent observers. This means the research has good internal validity