attachment
Caregiver-Infant Interactions
attachment - a lasting psychological connectedness between human beings;
Bowlby (1969). May be considered interchangeable with affectional/emotional
bond
primary caregiver - person who spends most time with the baby
primary attachment figure - person with whom the baby has the strongest
attachment
caregiver-infant interactions
attachment
a person’s first attachment is often established with the primary caregiver
during infancy. However, attachment is not unique to infant-caregiver
relationships but may also be present in other social relationships
Bowlby (1969); attachments of various kinds are formed through the
repeated act of ‘attachment behaviours/transactions’
Because caregivers vary in their levels of sensitivity and responsiveness, not
all infants attach to caregivers in the same wa
Ways to Recognise Attachment
Proximity - people try to stay physically close to their attachment figure
Separation Distress - people show signs of anxiety when an attachment
figure leaves their presence
Secure-base Behaviour - even when we are independent of our attachment
figures, we tend to make regular contact with them → babies display secure-
base behaviour when they regularly return to their attachment figure while
playing
reciprocity
A description of how two people inteact; both caregiver and baby respond to
each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other
attachment 1
, from birth, babies and their primary caregiver spend a lot of time in intense
and highly pleasurable interaction
EG: sticking tongue out at a baby and they giggle
essential part of any conversation, otherwise people talk over each other
Alert Phases
Babies have periodic Alert Phases in which they signal that they are ready
for a spell of interaction.
Feldman and Eidelman (2007) show that mothers typically pick up on and
respond to their baby’s alertness around 2/3 of the time
this, however, varies according to the skill of the mother and external
factors such as stress → Finegood et al. (2016)
from around 3 months, this interaction tends to become increasingly
frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each
other’s verbal signals and facial → Feldman (2007)
Active Involvement
Traditional views of childhood have portrayed babies in a passive role,
receiving care from an adult, however it seems that babies as well as
caregivers actually take quite an active role
both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take
turns in doing so
T. Berry Brazelton et al. (1975) described this interaction as a ‘dance’
because it is just like a couple’s dance where each partner responds to the
other person’s moves
interactional synchrony
caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this
in a co-ordinated, synchronised, way
Feldman (2007) → ‘the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social
behaviour’
Synchrony begins
Andrew Meltzoff and Keith Moore (1977) observed the beginnings of
interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old
An adult displayed 1/3 facial expressions or 1/3 distinct gestures
attachment 2
, Baby’s response was filmed + labelled by independent observers
more likely to mirror those of the adults more than the chance would
predict → significant association
Importance for Attachment
Russel Isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies together and
assessed the degree of synchrony
also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment
found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality
mother-baby attachment
evaluation
filmed observations ✓
Since research is typically in a lab environment, any activity that may distract
the baby can be controlled
using films means that observations can be recorded and analysed later →
unlikely to miss key behaviours + allows more than one observer can record data
and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations
babies do not know they are being observed = no overt observations (behaviour
does not change in response to observation)
data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity
difficulty observing babies ✘
young babies lack co-ordination and much of their bodies are almost immobile,
so the movements being observed are just small hand movements or subtle
changes in expression
difficult to determine what is taking place from the baby’s perspective
EG: hand twitch in response or random
cannot be certin that the behaviours seen in caregiver infant interactions
have a special meaning
developmental importance ✓ ✘
Ruth Fieldman (2012) points out that ideas like synchrony and reciprocity
simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours →
robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed, but may not
attachment 3
Caregiver-Infant Interactions
attachment - a lasting psychological connectedness between human beings;
Bowlby (1969). May be considered interchangeable with affectional/emotional
bond
primary caregiver - person who spends most time with the baby
primary attachment figure - person with whom the baby has the strongest
attachment
caregiver-infant interactions
attachment
a person’s first attachment is often established with the primary caregiver
during infancy. However, attachment is not unique to infant-caregiver
relationships but may also be present in other social relationships
Bowlby (1969); attachments of various kinds are formed through the
repeated act of ‘attachment behaviours/transactions’
Because caregivers vary in their levels of sensitivity and responsiveness, not
all infants attach to caregivers in the same wa
Ways to Recognise Attachment
Proximity - people try to stay physically close to their attachment figure
Separation Distress - people show signs of anxiety when an attachment
figure leaves their presence
Secure-base Behaviour - even when we are independent of our attachment
figures, we tend to make regular contact with them → babies display secure-
base behaviour when they regularly return to their attachment figure while
playing
reciprocity
A description of how two people inteact; both caregiver and baby respond to
each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other
attachment 1
, from birth, babies and their primary caregiver spend a lot of time in intense
and highly pleasurable interaction
EG: sticking tongue out at a baby and they giggle
essential part of any conversation, otherwise people talk over each other
Alert Phases
Babies have periodic Alert Phases in which they signal that they are ready
for a spell of interaction.
Feldman and Eidelman (2007) show that mothers typically pick up on and
respond to their baby’s alertness around 2/3 of the time
this, however, varies according to the skill of the mother and external
factors such as stress → Finegood et al. (2016)
from around 3 months, this interaction tends to become increasingly
frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each
other’s verbal signals and facial → Feldman (2007)
Active Involvement
Traditional views of childhood have portrayed babies in a passive role,
receiving care from an adult, however it seems that babies as well as
caregivers actually take quite an active role
both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take
turns in doing so
T. Berry Brazelton et al. (1975) described this interaction as a ‘dance’
because it is just like a couple’s dance where each partner responds to the
other person’s moves
interactional synchrony
caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this
in a co-ordinated, synchronised, way
Feldman (2007) → ‘the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social
behaviour’
Synchrony begins
Andrew Meltzoff and Keith Moore (1977) observed the beginnings of
interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old
An adult displayed 1/3 facial expressions or 1/3 distinct gestures
attachment 2
, Baby’s response was filmed + labelled by independent observers
more likely to mirror those of the adults more than the chance would
predict → significant association
Importance for Attachment
Russel Isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies together and
assessed the degree of synchrony
also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment
found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality
mother-baby attachment
evaluation
filmed observations ✓
Since research is typically in a lab environment, any activity that may distract
the baby can be controlled
using films means that observations can be recorded and analysed later →
unlikely to miss key behaviours + allows more than one observer can record data
and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations
babies do not know they are being observed = no overt observations (behaviour
does not change in response to observation)
data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity
difficulty observing babies ✘
young babies lack co-ordination and much of their bodies are almost immobile,
so the movements being observed are just small hand movements or subtle
changes in expression
difficult to determine what is taking place from the baby’s perspective
EG: hand twitch in response or random
cannot be certin that the behaviours seen in caregiver infant interactions
have a special meaning
developmental importance ✓ ✘
Ruth Fieldman (2012) points out that ideas like synchrony and reciprocity
simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours →
robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed, but may not
attachment 3
