Caregiver infant interactions

• Care giver infant interactions - Reciprocity


  infant responds to another in form of turn taking
• Feldman - reciprocity


  reciprocity increases as infant and caregiver pay more attention to each others communication
• Care giver infant interactions - Interactional Synchrony


  when infant mirrors the actions or emotion of caregiver
• Meltzoff and Moore - interactional synchrony


  it is innate, controlled observation

  clear association between infants behaviour and the adult model
• Care giver infant interactions AO3

  reliability of testing children - infants move their arms and mouth constantly so hard to investigate intentional behaviour

  methodological problems - observe bias, inter-observer reliability

  Koepke - failed to replicate findings of Meltzoff and Moore
• Stages of Attachment - Schaffer

  Asocial - 0-2 months, similar response to objects and people

  Indiscriminate - 2-6 months, develop human preference

  Discriminate Specific - 7-12 months, caregiver preference show joy upon reunion

  Multiple - 1yr+ - behaviours to several different people
• Stages of Attachment - Schaffer and Emmerson


  60 working class babies from Glasgow

  visited homes once a year

  around 25-32 wks - 50% showed separation anxiety

  40wks - 80% had specific attachment & 30% had multiple
• stages of attachment AO3

  high internal validity - more likely to act naturally in home environment

  lacks population validity - only 60 from Glasgow, unable to generalise, ethnocentric

  social desirability bias - mothers may not say 'accurate' information so they look like better mums
• Role of the father AO1


  fathers provide resources but times have changed

  some claim men aren't made equipped to form attachments

  others argue fathers take on a playmate role

  oestrogen undermines ability
• Role of the father AO3

  + role of the father as playmate - Geiger - fathers interactions more exciting than mothers

  + father not as equipped to be sensitive - Hrdy - fathers less equipped to detect low levels of infant distress
• role of the father - Belsky


  fathers who reported high levels of marital intimacy displayed secure father infant attachment