Caregiver-infant interactions & role of the Father

What is attachment?

An emotional bond with another person

What is reciprocity (in terms of attachment)?

A form of interaction between infant and caregiver involving mutual responsiveness, with both infant and mother responding to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other

• according to Feldman (2007), reciprocity can be seen in interactions from 3 months of age

What is Interactional Synchrony?

Where an infant mirrors the actions of another person, for example, their facial expressions and body movements - moving their body in tune with the rhythm of their carer

What is the difference between interactional synchrony and reciprocity?

Interactional synchrony is copying behaviour and reciprocity relates to turn-taking in verbal and non-verbal signals

What was the aim of Meltzoff & Moore’s study (1997)?

To investigate interactional synchrony between infants and their caregivers

What was the procedure for their study?

• conducted a series of controlled observations using babies aged 6-27 days old

• babies were exposed to four different stimuli; 3 facial gestures (e.g. sticking tongue out) and one manual gesture (e.g. waving fingers)

• the babies response to these gestures were observed and their actions were video recorded

• an independent observer (who had no knowledge of what the infant had just seen) was asked to note all instances of tongue protrusion and head movements using a number of behavioural categories

• more than one observer scored the recordings (allowing for inter-rater reliability to be assessed)

What were the findings and conclusion of the study?

Findings

• indicated that babies ages 12-27 days old could imitate both facial expressions and manual gestures

Conclusions

• Meltzoff and Moore concluded that the ability to imitate serves as an important building block for later social and cognitive development

AO3 - controlled observations = increased validity (STRENGTH)

P = controlled observations often capture fine details as they are generally well-controlled procedures

EV = e.g. both mother & infant are filmed (often from multiple angles), this ensures that fine details of behaviour can be recorded and later analysed - researchers can conclude that micro-sequences and behaviours from the interaction that have been captured are the results of this interaction

EXP = babies are unaware that they are being observed to their behaviour does not change in response to controlled observations which is generally a problem for observational methods

EXT = more than one observer increases inter-rater reliability as they did not rely on just one person

LB = this is positive because it means that in general the research has high internal validity it is measuring what it is intending to measure

AO3 - making inferences (WEAKNESS)

P = however, observations don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity and therefore it is hard to know what is happening when observing infants

EV = e.g. Fieldman (2012) points out that synchrony (and by implication reciprocity) simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time. As a result, researchers are making inferences about observed behaviour

EX = It is extremely hard to be certain, based on these observations, what is taking place from the infants perspective. The researcher cannot be certain that behaviours are deliberate, conscious, imitative behaviours as this is based on assumption

EXT = objective observations is trying to combat the fact that there is no way around having to make inferences

LB = this is a weakness because we cannot really know for certain that behaviours seen in mother-infant interactions have special meaning and whilst these actions can be reliably observed, this may not be particularly useful as it does not tell us their purpose

Role of the father AO1

• Grossman’s study (2002)

• Field’s study (1978)

Grossman 2002

• conducted longitudinal study of 44 families comparing role of fathers & mothers’ contribution to their children’s attachment experiences at 6,10 and 16 years

• Fathers’ play style was closely linked to the fathers’ own internal working model of attachment

• Play sensitivity was a better predictor of the child’s long-term attachment than the early measures of the attachment type that the infant had with their father

the fathers role is different - more to do with play stimulation and less to do with nurture

Field 1978

• filmed 4 month old babies, in their face to face interaction with their primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers

• primary caregiver fathers, just like the mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding their infants in comparison to secondary caregiver fathers

• this behaviour appears to be important in building an attachment with the infant

therefore, fathers can be a more nurturing attachment figure - the key to the attachment relationship is the level of responsiveness, not the gender of the parent

AO3 - gender roles

P = The fact that fathers tend not to become the primary attachment figure could simply be the result of traditional gender roles

EV = this can be seen in the offering of maternity leave vs paternity leave. Mothers are given up to a year off work whereas fathers are only provided with two weeks

EX = therefore fathers may simply not feel like they should need to act like that, or fulfill that role

C = on the other hand, it could be biological factors that contribute to these traditional roles. Female hormones such as estrogen, create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically predisposed to be the primary attachment figure

LB = this is a strength as it confirms that such difference between mothers and fathers in the role of rearing children can be down to an individuals nature but also their experiences of nurture

AO3 - socially sensitive

P = one limitation of the role of the father is that the research findings can be viewed as socially sensitive

EV = research concludes that infants may experience a different role from the father, for example, one that offers stimulating play rather than nurture

EX = this is an issue as it may make women/mothers feel like they cannot return to work as they are required to offer the caring, traditional mother role at home

EXT = furthermore, this is particularly socially sensitive for family set ups where there may be two mother/two fathers. Could be argued that research into this topic is very outdated and does not consider all modern family dynamics

LB = this suggests that the research needs to be viewed with caution as to not make mothers or fathers feel guilt about their choices surrounding who raises the child

AO3 - cultural generalisability

P = a limitation of the research into the role of the father is that it is not generalisable to all cultures

EV = for example, Hewlett found that in the Aka Pygmy people of central Africa, 47% of fathers are in reach of their infants at all times and that the male and female roles are virtually interchangeable with great flexibility as it is common for men to stay at home caring for the children whilst the women go out to hunt

EX = suggests that research where fathers are seen as the secondary caregiver is only bound to western cultures as gender egalitarian parenting is more common in tribal societies where both parental figures share a dual role in caregiver-infant interactions

EXT = in addition to this, Hewlett found that for up to 20% of the day, fathers within the Aka tribe are more likely to kiss and cuddle their children than the women. This further suggests that the stereotypical gender roles such as affection and empathy are also bound to western societies, whilst also providing evidence that men are as capable as women are at nurturing a child

LB = statistics like this suggest that research into the role of the father should be carefully used as is not a universal trend and may change depending on the culture and society