caregiver-infant interaction

what doe psychologist believe about baby’s interaction with caregivers?

what doe psychologist believe about baby’s interaction with caregivers?

from the start babies have a meaningful relationship with their carers

psychologist believe that these interaction have an important part to play on a child’s social development

good quality early social interactions are associated with successful development of attachment between babies and caregiver

what is reciprocity ?

this is when caregiver and baby respond to each others signals and elicit responses from each othere

what is interactional synchrony

caregiver - baby reflect each others actions and emotions of the other and do this in a coordinated way at the same time

how does reciprocity occur ?

from birth babies and their mothers spend a lot of time in intense highly pleasurable interaction

this is reciprocity when they respond to each others signals and illicit response

i.e. when mother smiles babies smile also known as turntaking

what is the alert phase

this is a period of time when the baby is ready to have an interaction

what did feldman and eidman find to do with alert phaese

mothers usually pick up and respond to the baby/s alertness around 2/3rd of the time

although can vary according to the skill of mother and external factors such as stress (finegood et.al 2016

from around 12 months babies interactions tend to become more frequent and involves mother and baby paying close attention to each others verbal signals and facial expressions

what is active involvement ?

traditional views of babies have portrayed babies in a passive role, receiving care from an adult. - babies actually have an active role

however it seems that babies can initiate interactions and appear to take turns doing so

what did T Berry Brazelton describe caregiver-baby interaction

described the information they took part in as a dance because it is like a couple’s dance where each partner responds to others move

what did meltzoff and moore observe about interactioanl synchrony ?

interactional synchrony begins in babies as young as two weeks old

what was the procedure for meltzoff and moore’s study ?

an adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures

the babies response was filmed and labelled by an independent observer

what was the findings of meltzoff and moore’s study ?

babies gestures and expressions were more likely to mirror those of adults more than chance would predict i.e. there was a significant association

who found out that interactional synchrony is important for attachment ?

Russell Isabella

outline the procedure of isabella et al. study

observed 30 babies and mothers together and assessed the degree of synchrony

they also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment

what did isabella et al. find ?

the found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachment with baby-mother e.g. the emotional intensity of the relationship

What is the method for Tronick et al study ?

Tronick places Kenzie who is 6 months in front her mum

Tronick asks the mother to act normal

then the mother disengages

then the mother re-engages

tronick measure the babies response to mothers actions at each stage

what did Tronick find ?

he found that when the mother disengaged the child would try to to immediately gain/ re-engage the attention

They would smile. scream and even becoming physical, hitting the mother and

becomes distraught

if the mother still isn’t engaged the baby stops gives up

when the mother re-engaged the connection was instant

WHat did Tronick conclude ?

babies are resilient and want interactions with their PCG.

Every time the mother re-connects the bond grows

concluded this disengagement and re-engagement is normal and happens in everyday life

what is a dyad

this is two units or individuals regarded as a pair

mother -child dyad

father-child dyad

what did Belsky and Russel observe

observed the interactions of dydas (using book reading as the interactive measure) developing secure attachment at 3&9 months

what did Belsky and Russel observe about the interaction between the dyads with a secure attachment

the observed interactions were overwhelmingly well timed, reciprocal and mutually rewarding

what did Belsky and Russel observe about Dyads developing insecure relationships

they found that their relationship were characterised by many more interactions in which mothers were minimally involved, unresponsive to infants signals, or were intrusive

What did Belskey and Russel conclude about their observations

they concluded that there was a link between interactional histories and attachment quality

what is one strength of the research on the topic of CGI-I filmed observation

CGI-I are usually filmed in a laboratory

This means that other activity that might distract the baby can be controlled.

using films mean that observations can be recorded and analysed later

Therefore it is unlikely that researchers will miss seeing key behaviours e.g. Tronicks study

furthermore having filmed interactions mean that more than one observer can record data and establish inter-rater reliability of observation

Finally babies do not they are being observed so their behaviour does not change in response to observations

therefore the data collected in such research has good reliability and validity

what is one limitaqtion about observing care giver infant interqaction

it is hard to interpret the baby’s behaviour

young babies lack coordination and much of their bodies are almost immobile

THe movements being observed are just small movements and subtle changes in expression

it would be difficult to be sure for example whether a baby is smiling of just passing wind

it is also difficult to determine what is taking place from the baby’s perspective

For example we cannot know whether a movement such as a hand twitch is random or triggered by something the cargeiver has done

this means we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver infant interactions have a special meaning.

what is another limitation of research into the developmental importance of caregiver infant interaction

A further limitation is that simply observing a behaviour does not tell us the developmental importance of caregiver infant interactions

xxxxxxxx feldman Ruth

this means that we cannot be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child’s development

what did Ruth Feldman point out that supports the limitation on the importance of developmental importance

points out that ideas like synchrony - reciprocity simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours

these are robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed - but not particularly useful in understanding child development as it does not tell us the purpose of these behaviours

what is a counterpoint of developmental importance

There is evidence from other lines of research that to suggest that early interaction are important

how does Isabella et al study support the view of developmental importance of CG-I interaction

found that achievement of interactional synchrony predicted the development of good attachment quality

what does Isabella et al study mean for the developmental importance of CG-i interaction

this means that on balance caregiver-infant interaction is probably important in development