ABSTRACT
Naturalistic observations of mother-infant interaction have become wide-spread in developmental research. For example, they have been used to identify possible predictors of adaptive and maladaptive functioning, to assess the effectiveness of intervention programmes, and to study interactive behaviour when either the mother or infant is suffering from some physical or psychological dysfunction. This chapter addresses methodological considerations which confront researchers in this area. The research used to exemplify these issues is a study carried out by the authors to identify conditions in the natural environment that influence infant learning and motivation to master the environment. This research arose out of a previous laboratory project which studied the effects of contingent and noncontingent stimulation (activation of a musical mobile) on the kicking responses of 3 1/2 month old infants, with and without disabilities (O’Brien 1991). This work established negative effects of both non-contingency and changing contingency on rates of responding and emotional expression in both groups of infants. Thus, support was provided for the possibility of ‘learned helplessness’ (Seligman, 1975) developing in infants whose environments provided low (less consistent) levels of consistent contingent experiences.
