Caregiver-infant relations

• precocial - animals are born at an advanced stage of development (e.g. horse and elephant)
• altricial - born at very early stage of development so need an adult to protect them (e.g. humans)
• Attachment - A close two way emotional bond between two individuals who see each other as essential for their own emotional security
• Attachment bonds characterised:

  1. Proximity
  2. Separation distress
  3. Secure-base behaviour
• Proximity - attempts to stay physically close to the mum
• Separation distress - upset when attachment figure leaves
• Secure-base behaviour - Even when infants play away from their caregiver, they will return every few minutes so they know they are still there
• Interactional Synchrony - Infants move their bodies in tune with the rhythm of the carers spoken language with the infants and caregivers action and emotion synchronised because they are moving in a similar pattern
• Reciprocity - caregiver-infant interaction is a two-way process; each party responds to the others signals to sustain interaction (turn-taking). The behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977):

  Aim = Investigate the imitation of facial expressions in infants
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977):

  Procedure - Selected 4 Stimuli and observed the infants response. Independent observers watched video tapes of the infants reaction. They noted the infants behaviour and which stimuli (facial expression) had been shown to the baby (12-21 day old babies)
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977):

  Results - The babies facial expressions mirrored the adults significantly more often then would happen by chance - there was significant association
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977):

  Conclusion - Infant imitation of facial expression is an innate ability and it aids attachment
• Mothers do pick up and respond to infant alertness around 2/3s of the time (Feldman + Elderman {2007})
• Traditionally babies have NOT been seen in an active role but in modern day. Both babies and mum can initiate interaction.
• Peels - Caregiver-infant interactions in humans:

  1. Strength - Supports that early interactions are important - Isabella et al(1989) - found in 30 mother/baby pairs that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachments

  Empirical Evidence
• Peels - Caregiver-infant interactions in humans:

  2. Weakness - cant get the infants perspective - Gratier (2004) - all infants show the same patterns of behaviour and don't actually know what they are thinking - hard to know the meaning of such small movements

  • Is a Partial explanation
• Peels - Caregiver-infant interactions in humans:

  3. Strength - well controlled procedures - filmed from multiple angles so can catch fine detail and babies don't know they are being observed.

  • increases reliability
• Peels - Caregiver-infant interactions in humans:

  4. W - Feldman (2012) - interactional synchrony and reciprocity just describe behaviours that occur at the same time and don't tell us the purpose - can't be certain these are important for child development

  Loses scientific credibility.
• Feldman (2012):

  Stated that interactional synchrony and reciprocity simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time and dont tell us the purpoe of them
• Gratier (2004):

  • Many studies into caregiver infant interactions show the same patterns of behaviour
  • The behaviour merely consists of hand movements or changes in expression
• Remembering the PEELs - Caregiver-infant relations:

  1. Supporting Study - Isabella et al
  2. Don't know the infants perspective
  3. Methodology is well controlled
  4. Don't know the purpose of reciprocity and IS
  5. Benefits society
• From 3 months, reciprocity becomes intense and more frequent