ABSTRACT
The authors' orientation throughout this chapter was bifocal, the subject always being the mother-child dual unit. The most valuable sources of data were the observations of mother-baby pairs by participant and nonparticipant observers (the latter behind a one-way screen). In addition, we filmed the children individually and in interaction with their mothers. The participant observers functioned in the room with the mothers and their children. Eventually, we became realistic about the fact that a portion of the participant observer's time and attention had to be absorbed by "participating," rather than observing. The other participant observer or observers (usually at least one, but at times two or more) could devote full attention to a particular mother-child pair. The material arising in these discussions was recorded in the form of minutes of the meetings. These informal periodic summaries themselves became part of the regular record of available data.
