AS ATTACHMENT; THE ROLE OF THE FATHER

Question 1

Describe the argument for the father being an important attachment figure

Answer 1

Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that by roughly 7 months infants had formed attachments with mothers, but within 2 weeks-a few months afterwards, 75% of babies had formed secondary attachments to the father. The attachment was determined by protesting from the infant if the father left.

Tiffany Field (1978) studied mums as primary caregivers, dads as primary caregivrers and dads as secondary caregivers. She found that the gender of the parent was irrelevant to the quality of attachment; it was the amount of time spent with the infant that was crucial to attachment

Question 2

Describe the argument against the father as an important attachment figure

Answer 2

Grossman (2002) did a longitudinal study and found that the quality of attachment to the father in infancy was not related to adolescent attachment, but quality of maternal attachment in infancy was related; suggests paternal attachment is less important

Question 3

Evaluate the role of the father

Answer 3

(-) Research is unclear on why fathers are often not primary attachment figures; is it nature (female hormones e.g. oestrogen and oxytocin make them more caring), or is it nurture (society’s expectations for gender roles)
(-) Inconsistent findings so can’t answer if fathers are important or not
(+) Economic implocations; if fathers CAN be primary attachment, then mothers can return to work and potentially bring in more money if they had a better paying job than the father.
(-) Grossman (2002) also found that quality of play DID affect quality of adolescent attachment, which suggests that whilst fathers may not be as important as caregivers, their role for stimulation and play may be crucial.