A level aqa psychology attachment notes which include AO1 and AO3 (descriptive evaluation points on each subtopic of attachment. These notes can be used to answer short answer questions and even 16 mark essays.
Discuss infant-caregiver interactions in attachment
-Attachment is an emotional bond between two people. It is a two-way process that endures
over time. It leads to certain behaviours such as clinging and proximity-seeking, and serves the
function of protecting an infant.
-Reciprocity is when an infant responds to the actions of another person in a form or turn-
taking and a behaviour is matched during an interaction . With reciprocity, the actions of one
person (i.e. the primary caregiver) elicits a response from the other (i.e. the infant).
-Brezelton suggests that this basic rhythm is an important precursor to later communications.
The regularity of an infant’s signals allows a caregiver to anticipate the infant’s behaviour and
respond appropriately. The sensitivity to infant behaviour lays the foundation for later
attachment between caregiver and infant.
-Interactional synchrony takes place when infants mirror the actions or emotions of another
person, for example, their facial expressions. In this caregiver–infant interaction the child will
move their body or carry out the same act as their caregiver simultaneously and the two are
said to be synchronized (in ‘sync’). This interaction serves to sustain communication between
the two individuals.
-Meltzoff and Moore examined interactional synchrony in infants by using a controlled
observation, an adult model displayed one of three facial expressions, or a hand gesture. The
child’s expressions were filmed in real time.They found that there was a clear association
between the infants’ behaviour and that of the adult model.These findings suggest that
interactional synchrony is innate and reduces the strength of any claim that imitative behaviour
is learned.
-However, Jean Piaget believes that true imitation only develops towards the end of the first
year and anything before this was due to operant conditioning (infant carries out behaviour due
to getting a reward). However Murray and Trevarthen found that infant got distressed if no
response was produced thus showing that the infant is actively eliciting a response than
displaying a rewarded response pointing to the innate nature of imitation.
A03
1) Children in constant motion - One limitation of research into caregiver–infant interactions
is the questionable reliability of testing infants. This is because infants move their
mouths and wave their arms constantly, which is an issue for researchers investigating
intentional behaviour. Therefore, we cannot be certain that the infants were actually
engaging in interactional synchrony or reciprocity, as some of the behaviour may have
occurred due to general activity. However, to overcome this problem Meltzoff and Moore
measured infant responses by filming and then asked an observer (who had no idea
what behaviour is being imitated) to judge the infants’ behaviour from the video which
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