Reciprocity And Interactional Synchrony
September 1, 2021 - Paper 1 Introductory Topics in Psychology | Attachment
Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony in Infant Attachment
Research into Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony
This page looks at the roles of reciprocity and interactional synchrony through caregiver and infant interactions (in humans). It is important in your Psychology exam that you are able to define the terms ‘reciprocity’ and ‘interactional synchrony’ and that you’re able to give examples of infants displaying reciprocity and interactional synchrony (e.g. in everyday life/psychological research). Firstly, it is important to be able to define and understand what is meant by caregiver and infant attachment.
Defining the term 'Attachment.'
Attachment is a two-way, enduring, emotional tie between two people (usually and infant and their primary caregiver). An attachment is usually shown in the behavior between two people. An attachment between an infant and primary caregiver is usually reciprocal (responding to the action of another with a similar action). This attachment (tie) usually develops in set stages within a fairly set timescale.
Description of Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony in Infant Attachment
Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony (AO1, Description):
Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony are a description of how two people interact. Mother-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both mother and infant respond to each other’s signal and each elicits a response from the other. Babies have periods of ‘alert phases’ and signal to their mother that they are ready for interaction. Mother’s typical pick up on this signal and respond two-thirds of the time. From around three months the interactions tend to be increasingly frequent and involves close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions. An interaction is reciprocal when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them.
Interactional Synchrony Definition (AO1, Description): Can be defined as how a Mother and baby reflect both the actions and the emotions of the other and do this in a coordinated (synchronized way).
Research into Interactional Synchrony; Meltzoff and Moore (1997) - AO1 Description of Key Research
Aim: To investigate reciprocity between infants and their caregivers.
Procedure: Meltzoff and Moore (1997) conducted a series of controlled observations using babies (aged 6 to 27 days old) and 12 babies (aged 16-21 days old). The Babies were exposed to four different stimuli; three facial gestures (e.g. sticking tongue out) and one manual gesture (e.g. waving fingers). The babies response to each of these gestures were observed and their actions were video recorded. An independent observer (who had no knowledge of what the infant had just seen) was asked to note all instances of tongue protrusion and head movements using a number of behavioral categories. Each observer scored the recordings twice (allowing for both inter-rater reliability and intra-observer reliability to be assessed).
Findings: The results indicated that babies aged 12 to 27 days old could imitate both facial expressions and manual gestures displayed by their primary caregiver.
Conclusions: Meltzoff and Moore concluded that the ability to imitate serves as an important building block for later social and cognitive development.
Click here to learn more about Naturalistic Observations and the types of observations/research methods used in Meltzoff and Moore’s research. Remember, in your exam, it is important to know what natural observations are, how they are designed and the association strengths and weaknesses -> Naturalistic Observation
Evaluation of Research into Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony (AO3)
Strengths of Research into Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony (AO3)
(+) A strength is that controlled observations often capture fine details as they are generally well-controlled procedures. For example, both the mother and the infant are filmed, often from multiple angles, this ensures that fine details of behavior can be recorded and later analyzed. Furthermore, babies are unaware that they are being observed so their behavior does not change in response to controlled observations which is generally a problem for observational research. This is positive because it means that in general the research has high internal validity it is measuring what it is intending to measure.
Weaknesses of Research into Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony (A03)
(-) However, observations don’t tell us the purpose if synchrony and reciprocity. For example, Fieldman (2012) points out that synchrony (and by implication reciprocity) simply describe behaviors that occur at the same time. This is a weakness because 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.
(-) Furthermore, it is hard to know exactly what is happening when observing infants. For example, is the infant’s imitation of the adult conscious and deliberate or a coincidence? What is being observed is merely hand movements or changes in expressions. It is extremely difficult to be certain, based on these observations, what is taking place from the infant’s perspective. This is a weakness because we cannot really know for certain that behaviors seen in mother-infant interactions have special meaning.
Once you have covered the notes in this section, move on and have a look at the Stages of Attachment as identified by Schaffer.
Still not confident that you can remember the key research and evaluation covered here? Why not have a look at our student study tips page for some suggestions on the different types of revision activities that you can complete or the revision resources that you can create in order to maximize the amount of information that you can remember in preparation for your exams.