Caregiver infant interaction

• From a young age babies have meaningful interactions with their caregivers
• Reciprocity - babies and caregivers take turns and respond to each other‘s interactions. Babies have an active role and seek interaction. They are not passive.
• Interactional synchrony - babies + caregivers mirror each others expressions and gestures. The beginnings of synchrony can be seen in babies as early as two weeks.
• Good levels of synchrony are associated with good quality attachments.
• Separation distress / anxiety - being upset when the attachment figure leaves
• Secure-base behaviour - leaving the attachment figure but regularly returning to them when playing
• Attachment promotes survival in infants and caregivers.

  infants - uses social releasers to Encourage care and interaction with caregivers

  caregivers - takes care of infant to successfully pass on genes
• Maccoby four characteristics of attachment : seeking proximity, distress on separation, joy on reunion, orientation on behaviour
• Brazleton et al (1975) describe reciprocity as a dance as both partner respond to each other’s moves.
• Travathen (2014) suggests that turn-taking in infant-adult interaction is important social skills
• Tronick et al (1975) asked mothers that were playing with their child to stop expressing emotion suddenly. The baby then tries to provoke a response with social releasers.
• AO3. infant-mother research could be unreliable. this is because infants lack control and motor skills, meaning not all of their moves and behaviours are intentional. this means infant behaviour cannot be interpreted accurately and research may lack reliability as we are unsure if their responses are genuine. however infants cannot show demand characteristics, so there may still be genuine infant behaviour captured.
• AO3. Infant-mother research can also be criticised due to the fact it only focuses on one type of relationship. This limits generalisations about attachments as they do not take into account different types of relationships such as father-child or sibling-sibling. However, this does allow researchers to focus on specific aspects of attachment which would otherwise be difficult to investigate.
• AO3. a strength of caregiver-infant interactions is that the impact on development. Melztoff (2005) suggests that interaction with infants allows them to develop an Understanding of themselves, and the thoughts and feelings of others which is an important element of social relationships. This means that caregiver infant interactions are beneficial for future relationships as the foundation of social development.
• AO3. the studies took place in controlled environments , with both the mother and baby being filmed which could be analysed at a later date. This increases the reliability and validity of the studies.