Caregiver Infant Interactions

Cards (8)

What is attachment?
A two way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.
How can attchment be recognised?
When the individual(s) displays proximity seeking behaviours, separation distress and secure base behaviour.
What is reciprocity?
A description of how two people interact. An interaction is said to show reciprocity when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them.
Give an example of a reciprocal interaction.
Caregiver and infant interaction.
What is interactional synchrony?
Where the caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other. It can be said that they mirror each other. They do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way.
What did Melzoff and Moore find in terms of interactional synchrony?
They found that this mirroring was more than chance would predict, meaning that there was a significant association.
What did Isabella et al. find in terms of interactional synchrony?
She found that interactional synchrony impacts the quality of attachments. In particular, higher levels of synchrony were associated with better quality of mother-baby attachment.
How did Braxleton et al. describe reciprocity?
He described it as a 'dance' because it is just like a couple's dance where each partner responds to the other person's moves.