Caregiver-Infant Interaction and The Role of the Father

Flashcards about caregiver-infant interactions and attachment based on lecture notes.

What did Johnson & Morton find when showing 3 faces to babies?

Showed a scrambled, control, and schematic face to babies less than an hour old. Babies spent more time looking at the schematic face, suggesting attachment is nature as there wasn’t enough time for it to be learnt (instinctive)

What is reciprocity in caregiver-infant interaction?

When a person responds to another person and elicits a response from them in return.

What does reciprocity influence?

Physical, social, and cognitive development.

What is interactional synchrony?

The temporal coordination of micro-level social behavior; when the carer and infant mirror each other’s actions and emotions at the same time.

What did Tronick study?

Observed mother-infant interactions with 2 different facial expressions (happy and interacting, still and non-responsive). The baby would quickly become distressed with the still face and would attempt to get any response by smiling, pointing, and reaching out. Suggesting that reciprocity is vital and without it, it may cause distressand potentially damage the child.

What did Meltzoff & Moore study?

They showed babies different clips of facial expressions and recorded their reactions. They then used blind observers to observe the facial expressions of the babies (unaware of the clip they watched). Findings were that babies as early as 12 days old can imitate facial expressions and gestures. Higher levels of interactional synchrony are also associated with better quality attachments, suggesting it’s importance for emotional development.

What level of demand characteristics does research into caregiver-infant interactions have?

High as young babies are unaware they are being observed, therefore should give their authentic reaction

Weakness of research into caregiver-infant interaction?

Hard to get qualitative data as babies cannot communicate so difficult to establish whether behaviours are deliberate or unconcious.

What is the difference between mother and father parenting/play?

Fathers engage in more risk-taking and stimulating play, mothers have a more soothing influence.

What did Paquette find about the role of the father?

Fathers encourage risk-taking play and mothers use more emotional language. Different but both are necessary.

What did Field study about the Role of the Father?

He recorded caregivers and 4-month old interacting face-to-face. The 3 conditions: mother as primary, father as primary, and father as secondary. Results were that both primary caregiver interactions performed equally well with the baby responding and holding them more. Suggesting that gender is irrelevant but reciprocity and interactional synchrony are more important.