A - The role of the father Flashcards
What did Schaffer and Emerson day
Children form multiple attachments by 10/11 months, by 18 months 31% of infants have 5+ attachments
What is the traditional role of the father
The playmate and the bread winner
What is the modern role of the father
Play based role, providing stimulation, less predictable than mothers
What is the traditional role of the mother
Seen as nurturers, emotional support for the child
What is the difference in talking behaviours
Mother uses primarily emotional, soothing and reassure infants, use a wider range of vocabulary
BUT in Indian middle class families same talking styles used between parents (cultural differences)
What did Pleck (2010) suggest
The amount of time a father spends with an infant is a measure of involvement in parenting (quantity over quality)
What did Lamb and Tamis-LeMonda (2004) suggest
The amount of time spent is far less important than what they do with the time (quality over quantity)
what are the 3 dimensions to capture a father’s involvement from Lamb
- interaction: quantity of father engaging with child (quantity)
- accessibility: how physically and emotionally accessible he is (quality)
- responsibility: extent to which he takes on caretaking tasks (quality)
how did Verissimi et al (2011) study social development
- examined the relationships between children’s attachment to both of their parents and later popularity in nursery
- quality of relationships between fathers and toddlers significantly correlated with number of friends at pre-school
- relationships with father appears to be more important than toddler-mother relationships in terms of social development
how does biology play a role in the role of the father
- females have more oestrogen than men which is meant lead to nurture
- suggests that the father cannot take the role of the care-giver
- females are biologically advantages to have a nurturing role
how opposes the idea of biology
Lamb (1987) - fathers who are the main caregiver quickly develop the same level of sensitivity
who supports the idea of biology
Hrdy (1999) - fathers are less able to detect low levels of infant distress than mothers
how did Belsky et al (2009) study marital intimacy
- males who reported high levels of marital intimacy had a securer father-infant attachment and vice versa
what were the problems with Belsky’s study
- self-report: social desirability bias
- subjective view of intimacy
- correlation not causation
- socially sensitive
- deterministics
how is the role of the father deterministic - AO3
Hrdy supports the idea of biology which cannot be changed - deterministic as it is decided as men have less oestrogen
AO3 - is the role of the father nomothetic or idiographic
nomothetic as it is applying a general law to fathers and does not focus on unique and individual experiences and relationships
AO3 - how does research showing that those grown up in single/same sex families don’t have developmental issues take away from biology
shows that it is less about the role of the mother or father but just about having parental roles
- also lacks temporal validity
AO3 - how does sex role stereotypes influence mothers and fathers
expectations regarding sex and behaviours from social norms will change the way the parents act
AO3 - how does gender bias apply in the role of the father
has an alpha bias as it exaggerates the difference between makes and females and says that there is a very distinct difference between the 2
AO3 - how is the role of the father socially sensitive
need to avoid absolutes in relations to fathers and need to be mindful about how it makes them feel (guilt, devalued, under pressure)
