Infancy

Infancy

1. Reciprocity

   • A description of how two people interact
     • Mother - infant interaction is reciprocal in that both mother and infant respond to each others signals and elicits a response from the other

2. International synchrony

   • Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way

3. Meltzoff and Moore study

   • Observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as 2 weeks. An adult displayed one of the 3 facial expressions or one of 3 distinctive gestures. The child's response was filmed and identified by independent observers.
     • An association was found between the expression or gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the babies. It is believed that interactional synchrony is important for the development of mother - infant attachment.

4. Isabelle et al

   • Observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed the quality of mother - infant attachment. They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother - infant attachment

5. Evaluation on observational experiments

   • Strength - As an independent observer is used it means the experiment is not open to bias, therefore increasing the validity of the results.
   • Weakness - As this experiment is carried out on babies, we can't be certain of their actions, and whether or they were deliberate or not