Caregiver-infant interactions

What is an attachment?

A close two-way emotional bond between two individuals who see each other as essential for their emotional security.

What behaviours can be recognised as a sign of attachment?

Proximity

Separation distress

Secure-base behaviour

What are alert phrases?

When babies signal their readiness for interaction through verbal and facial signals

How do Feldman and Eidelman (2007) and Finegood et al. (2016) findings about alert phases differ?

Feldman and Eidelman: Mothers pick up and respond to alerts 2/3 of the time, and this interaction becomes increasingly frequent around 3 months.

Finegood et al.: Varies to the skills of the mother and external factors eg stress

What is active involvement?

Babies are not always passive, they take a very active role as they can initiate interactions.

How does Brazleton et al. (1975) describe reciprocity?

A ‘dance’ where each partner responds to the other’s moves

What is interactional synchrony?

When two people interact, they become ‘synchronised’ when they carry out the same action simultaneously

What was Meltzoff and Moore (1977)’s research?

• Looked at beginning of interactional synchrony in 2-week-old babies through an adult displaying model 3 different facial expressions

• Babies’ responses filmed by observers

• Found babies’ expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults

What was Isabella et al. (1989)’s research?

• Observed 30 babies and mothers together, assessing the degree of synchrony and quality of attachment

• High levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment

Why did filming the babies in a lab give the study good reliability and validity?

Reliability: No biases in observation, multiple observers can record data (good inter rater reliability)

Validity: Babies do not know they are being observed, therefore their behaviour won’t change as a response to observation

What research evidence is there to show the importance of early interactions?

Isabella et al. (1989) found interactional synchrony predicted the development of a good-quality attachment

What practical applications does research into early interactions have?

Crotwell et al. (2013) found that PCIT improved interactional synchrony in 20 low-income others and their pre-school children

What limitations are there to the participants being young babies?

It is hard to interpret their behaviour as they lack co-ordination and are mostly immobile - most movements are subtle, maybe random or intentional - uncertain whether the behaviours are a part of caregiver-infant interaction

Why is it unclear if reciprocity and synchrony is importantly for a child’s development?

• Feldman (2012) suggests synchrony and reciprocity just give names to patterns of observable infant-caregiver behaviour → just because they can be easily observed, doesn’t mean that this tells us the purpose of these behaviours

• Research is not clear whether it is important or not

Why may Crotwell et al.’s research be socially sensitive?

Could be used to criticise mums who go to work soon after birth by suggesting this might worsen attachment - however, this criticism is not rooted in science.