Intro To Attachment - Caregiver Interactions + Role Of FatherA03

Question 1

Limitation - It is hard to know what is happening when observing infants

Answer 1

• what is being observed is merely hand movements or changes in expression.
• It is extremely difficult to be certain, based on these observations, what is taking place from the infant’s perspective. - Is, for example, the infant’s imitation of adult signals conscious and deliberate?
• This means that we cannot really know for certain that behaviours seen in mother–infant interaction have a special meaning.

Question 2

Strength - Controlled observations capture fine detail

Answer 2

• Observations of mother–infant interactions are generally well-controlled procedures, with both mother and infant being filmed, often from multiple angles.
• This ensures that very fine details of behaviour can be recorded and later analysed.
• Furthermore babies don’t know or care that they are being observed so their behaviour does not change in response to controlled observation – which is generally a problem for observational research.
• This is a strength of this line of research because it means the research has good validity.

Question 3

Limitation - Observations don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity -Feldman 2012

Answer 3

• points out that synchrony (and by implication reciprocity) simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time.
• they can be reliably observed, but this may not be particularly useful as it does not tell us their purpose.
• However, there is some evidence that reciprocal interaction and synchrony are helpful in the development of mother–infant attachment, as well as helpful in stress responses, empathy, caregiver fathers. language and moral development.

Question 4

Limitation for attachment figures - inconsistent findings on fathers

Answer 4

• Research into the role of fathers in attachment is confusing because different researchers are interested in different research questions.
• some psychologists are interested in understanding the role fathers have as secondary attachment figures
• others are more concerned with the father as primary attachment figure.
• The former have tended to see fathers behaving differently from mothers and having a distinct role. The latter have tended to find that fathers can take on a ‘maternal’ role.
• This is a problem because it means psychologists cannot easily answer a simple question the layperson often asks: what is the role of the father?

Question 5

Limitation - If fathers have a distinct role why aren’t children without fathers different?

Answer 5

• The study by Grossman found that fathers as secondary attachment figures had an important role in their children’s development.
• However, other studies (e.g. MacCallum and Golombok 2004) have found that children growing up in single or same-sex parent families do not develop any differently from those in two-parent heterosexual families.
• This would seem to suggest that the father’s role as a secondary attachment figure is not
  important.

Question 6

Why don’t fathers generally become primary attachments?

Answer 6

• The fact that fathers tend not to become the primary attachment figure could simply be the result of traditional gender roles, in which women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than men.
• Therefore fathers simply don’t feel they should act like that.
• On the other hand, it could be that female hormones (such as ostrogen) create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically pre-disposed to be the primary attachment figure.