Care-giver infant interactions

• Attachment is a two way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as important for their emotional security
• Attachment behaviours

  1. Proximity
  2. Separation anxiety
  3. secure-base behaviour
• Proximity- staying physically close to their attachment figure
• Separation anxiety- shows high levels of anxiety when an attachment figure has left
• Secure-base behaviour- returning to the attachment figure on a regular basis
• Caregiver-infant interactions

  • meaningful interactions between babies and caregivers
  • Help develop an attachment between a caregiver and an infant
  • Attachment begins with interaction
• Reciprocity- when both caregiver and infant respond to each other's signal and each elicit a response from each other. Known as turn-taking
• Babies have alert phases which signals they are ready for interaction
• Around 2/3 of the time, mothers can pick up on alert phases (Feldman and Eidelman, 2007)
• For 3 months, interaction between baby and the carer become frequent and involves paying close attention to each other's verbal signals and facial expressions (Feldman, 2007)
• Effective back and forth allows for the development of healthy attachment
• Active involvement

  • babies have an active role, not passive
  • Both initiate interactions
  • Brazelton et al (1975) described the interaction as a dance
• Interactional synchrony- Caregiver and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of each other in a co-ordinated way
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

  • Observed interactional synchrony in newborns
  • adult displayed 3 facial expressions and one hand gesture
  • infant's reactions were filmed and labelled by independent observers
  • Correlation between adult behaviour and infant response
• Conclusion of Meltzoff and Moore (1977):

  Interactional synchrony is an innate interaction
• Isabella et al (1989)

  • assessed the degree of synchrony in 30 infants and mothers
  • Assessed quality of attachment
  • Higher levels of synchrony was associated with better quality attachments
• Conclusion of Isabella et al (1989)

  Interaction synchrony is important as it predicts the quality of attachment
• STRENGTHs of caregiver-infant interactions

  • Filmed observations in a lab- control variables, establishes inter-observer reliability, increases validity
• LIMITATIONS of caregiver-infant interactions

  • Problems with testing infant behaviour- recorded behaviours are frequent, hard to determine whether it is coincidental or not
  • Socially sensitive- Could suggest children of working mothers have worse attachments