Caregiver-infant Interactions

Caregiver-infant Interactions

1. Reciprocity

   • Jaffe et al., 1973
     • infants coordinated actions with caregivers
   • = Responding to an action of another with a similar action, where the actions of one partner elicit a response from the there partner. The responses are not necessarily similar as in interactional synchrony
   • Brazelton, 1979

2. Interactional Synchrony

   • = When 2 people interact they tend to mirror what the other is doing in terms of their facial and body movements and emotions.
   • Andrew Meltzoff & Keith Moore, 1977)
     • Procedure
       • Controlled observation
       • Each observers score the tapes twice so both intra-observer and inter-observer reliability could be calculated
       • Behavioural categories (x4)
         • Mouth opening and termination of mouth opening
     • Findings

3. Evaluation

   • Failure to replicate
     • Koepke et al., 1983
       • HOWEVER: M&M argued it was due to it being less carefully controlled
       • Marian et al., 1996
         • replicated study from Murray and Trevarthen
   • Problems with testing infant behaviour
     • infants mouths in fairly constant motion
       • difficult to distinguish between general activity and specific imitated behaviours
         • HOWEVER: M & M filmed infants and observers had no idea what behaviour was being imitated
           • increased internal validity
   • individual differences
     • Isabella et al, 1989
       • found that more strongly attached infant-caregiver pairs showed greater interactional synchrony
   • is the behaviour intentional?