Caregiver-infant interactions

• 1. Reciprocity: two-way flow of interaction between infant and caregiver where both display a mutual interest in each other and both contribute to the 'conversation'. A feature is turn-taking, the adult will provide a verbal communication and the baby will respond accordingly e.g gurgling. Imitation - baby repeats what the caregiver does e.g smiling or sticking tongue out. Still face study provides evidence for reciprocity
• 2. Interactional Synchrony: sequences of infant-caregiver interaction occur together to such an extent that the movements and communications they share are indistinguishable from one another. Infant (non-speaking party) will coordinate the movement in time with adult speech so that each reflects the other in a synchronised way

  3. Motherese (Baby Talk Register): change their language when conversing to infants. Higher pitched, non-verbal sounds, fewer + shorter words + sentences, singy songy
• Evaluation of the role of the caregiver

  + Controlled observations get the fine details - babies are unaware they're being observed so don't change their behaviour. This leads to the research having good validity

  X Observations don't tell us the reason for synchrony + reciprocity - however there's evidence to suggest that these are helpful in empathy, language + moral development. Therefore may have some use
• Role of the Father

  Lamb found that infants will approach the fathers as often as mothers but for different reasons. The father spends time with them in a fun, playtime context whereas mothers spend time with the infant carrying out duties like cleaning and dressing.
• Evaluation of the role of the Father

  + Important economic implications - research which suggests that fathers can play an equally important role in their child's development will be a comfort to the mother who feel they have to make hard choices about not returning to work. This maximises the benefit to the economy

  X Inconsistent findings on fathers - different researchers are interested in different research questions, e.g role of the father as a secondary attachment figure, or a primary one. This leads mixed findings therefore lacks validity