Attachment: Caregiver - Infant Interactions

Infancy

Period in a child's life before speech

Attachment

A close two way bond between two individuals

What are the 4 types of attachment behaviour?

1. Seeking Proximity

2. Distress if separated

3. Secure base behaviour

4. Pleasure when reunited

Reciprocity

- Two-way interactions

- Both caregiver and infant are active contributors

What is an experiment related to reciprocity?

Brazelton (1979) - basic rhythm important for basic communication

Interactional Synchrony

When two people interactions they tend to mirror each others actions and emotions

International Synchrony Experiment: Meltzoff and Moore (1977) Procedure

- Exposed two to three week old infants to an adult model who used one of three facial expressions

- A dummy was placed in the baby's mouth during the display

- The infant often mirrored the expressions

What were the findings of Meltzoff and Moore (1977)?

They found that infants mirrored the model's expressions

What was the conclusion of Meltzoff and Moore (1977)?

These findings demonstrate interactional synchrony in caregiver-infant interactions

What are some strengths of Meltzoff and Moore's research?

- it was a controlled study with standardised procedures, increasing internal validity and replicability

- it was filmed, and analysed by independent observers who were unaware of what the adult had done, which reduces observer bias and increases inter-rater reliability

What are some weaknesses of Meltzoff and Moore's research?

- it's difficult to interpret infant behaviour, as it's hard to determine whether a baby's behaviour is intentional imitation or just random movement

- limited generalisability as the sample size was small, and may not generalise to all infants

What is inter-rater reliability?

Comparing the ratings of two or more observers to check for agreement in their measurements.

What are alert phases?

A periodic phase where the baby signals that they are ready for interaction

What is real imitation?

When you copy someone on purpose as you understand what they're doing and want to do it to

What is pseudo imitation?

When you copy someone but don't understand what you're doing or why you're doing it.

What are some benefits of using a laboratory in observing babies?

- minimises distractions

- can record and view later

- more than one observer for inter-rater reliability

- babies don't know that they are being observed, so demand characteristics are removed

What are some negatives of using a laboratory in observing babies?

- interpreting the behaviour is difficult

- lack of coordination- don't know whether the behaviours are random or intentional

- results can't be certain