Caregiver-infant interactions

Caregiver-infant interactions

1. Reciprocity - a description of how two people interact. Mother-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and moth respond to each other's signals and each elicits a response from the other.

   • Babies have periodic 'alert phases' and signal that they are ready for interaction.
   • From around 3 months this interaction tends to be increasingly frequent and involves close attention to each other's verbal signals and facial expressions.
   • Both mother and child can initiate interactions and they can appear to take turns in doing so. Brazleton et al. (1975) described this interaction as a dance because it is just like a couple's dance where each partner responds to each other's moves.

2. Interactional synchrony - mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way.

   • This takes place when mother and infant interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other.
   • Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as two weeks old. An adult displayed 1of 3 facial expressions or 1of 3 distinctive gestures. The child's response was filmed and identified by independent observers. They found an association between the expression or gesture the adult had displayed and the action of the babies.
   • Isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony. The researchers also assessed the quality of mother-infant attachment. They found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment.

3. EVALUATION

   • Many studies involving observation of interactions between mothers and infants have shown the same patterns of interaction. However, what is being observed is merely hand movements or changes in expression. It is hard to know, based on these observations, what is taking place from the infant's perspective. We cannot be certain that behaviours seen in mother-infant interaction have a special meaning.
   • Observations of mother-infant interactions are generally well-controlled procedures, with both mother and infant being filmed, often from multiple angles. Furthermore babies don't know or care that they are being observed so their behaviour does not change in response to controlled observation - which is generally a problem for observational research. This is a strength of this line of research because it means the research has good validity.
   • Feldman (2012) points out that synchrony simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time. These are robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed, but this may not be particularly useful as it does not tell us their purpose.
   • There is some evidence that reciprocal interaction and synchrony are helpful in the development of mother-infant attachment, as well as helpful in stress responses, empathy, language and moral development.