Attachment - Infant caregiver interactions

Page 1

Paragraph 1 - Reciprocity

infants coordinate actions with caregivers in a kind of conversation

taking turns

brazleton - important percusor to later communications

allows caregiver to anticipate infants behaviour and respond appropriately

Paragraph 2 -interactional synchrony

Meltzoff and Moore - infants as young as two to three weeks old imitated hand and facial gestures

found an association between infant behaviour and adult model

found the same with infants as young as three days old

behavioural response must be innate

Paragraph 3 - real or pseudo imitation

Meltzoff and Moore- imitation is intentional

Piaget - true imitation only after 1 year, anything before this 'response training' - behaviour that was rewarded

pseudo imitation

Murray and Trevarthen's study show that behaviours are innate rather than learned (live and played tape of mother)

Page 2

Evaluation - Paragraph 4 - is the behaviour intentional?

Abravenel and DeYong- observed infant behaviour when interacting with two simulating objects. Infants made little response to these objects.

infants dont just imitate anything they see - it is a specific social response to other humans

Paragraph 5 - Problems with testing infant behaviour

- infants mouth always in constant motion

- difficult to distinguish between general activity and specific imitated behaviour

Paragraph 6 - Failure to replicate

- Koepke et al - failed to replicate Meltzoff and Moore's study

- Marian et al - replicated Murray and Trevarthen's study found that infants couldn't distinguish from live and videotaped interactions with mother - infant not actually responding to mother

Page 3

Further Evaluation - Paragraph 7 - Individual Differences

variation between infants

Isabella et al - more strongly attached infants show greater interactional synchrony

Heimann- infants who show a lot of imitation have found to have a better relationship at 3 months

Paragraph 8 - The Value of Research

imitative behaviour forms basis for social development

like me hypothesis - infants begin to acquire sense of what others are thinking and feeling

relates to Theory of Mind - fundamental for conducting social relationships.