Developmental: The Role Of The Father

Question 1

What is the role of fathers traditionally?

Answer 1

Fathers only played a minor role in parenting.

Question 2

What was some early research from Bowlby?

Answer 2

Focussed on the mother - infant interactions and suggested there’s one caregiver (mostly the mother) suggest fathers are more of a playmate as mothers are usually more sensitive.

Question 3

What was Grossmans study into how important the father is?

Answer 3

Longitudinal study (44 families) looked at both parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachment experiences (to the teens)
Found the quality of attachment with mothers related to attachment in adolescence - suggests fathers attachment less important
Yet quality of play with fathers related to quality of adolescent attachment suggests fathers plays a different role in attachment - play and stimulation (not nurturing)

Question 4

What did Field find in his study about fathers being the primary caregivers?

Answer 4

Filmed 4 month old babies face to face interactions with mother (PC), father (SC) and father (PC).
PC fathers (like mothers) spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants compared to SC fathers.
Found this behaviour appears to be more important in building attachments with the infant, fathers can be nurturing.
This shows key to attachment is the level of responsiveness - not gender

Question 5

What’s some general strengths to these studies?

Answer 5

+ evidence suggests that children with secure attachments with their fathers go on to have better relationships with peers, less behaviour problems and more able to regulate emotions
+ fathers support mothers - they provide needed time away from child-care to reduce stress, helping her relationship with her children too

Question 6

What are some general weaknesses evaluation points?

Answer 6

• individual differences effect how important their relationship is, the more positive attachment the better, but differences - how father and child respond will always vary.
• numerous influences (e.g. culture, father age/sensitivity, time spent away from home, etc) difficult to draw conclusions
• research shows some children without fathers develop no differently (MacCallum and Golombok)
• inconsistent findings on the role of the father
• doesn’t explain why fathers don’t generally become PCs