multiple attachments and the role of the father

Question 1

summarise the role of the father

Answer 1

• primary attachment figure in only 3% of cases
• form attachments based on play and stimulation rather than nurturing
• when primary caregivers, fathers adopt behaviours similar to mothers

Question 2

explain a strength of research into the role of the father in attachment formation

Answer 2

important economic implications

• mothers feel pressured to stay at home due to stereotypes
• may not be economically beneficial
• research may be comforting to mothers who feel they need to make hard choices about not returning to work

Question 3

explain the limitation that researchers are interested in different research questions

Answer 3

• some want to understand fathers as secondary attachment figures and found they behave differently to mothers
• some concerned with fathers as primary attachment figures and found they take on a maternal role

Question 4

explain the limitation that the evidence undermines the idea of fathers having distinct roles

Answer 4

• Grossman found fathers had role involving play and stimulation
• other studies found children in single-parent families don’t develop differently to those not
• suggests fathers role as secondary attachment figure is not important

Question 5

explain the limitation that research fails to provide a clear answer about fathers and primary attachments

Answer 5

• women expected to be more caring and nurturing
• fathers feel they don’t need to act in a nurturing way
• or female hormones create higher levels of nurturing

Question 6

explain the limitation that social biases prevent objective observation

Answer 6

• stereotype that father is more playful and stricter causes unintentional observer bias
• conclusions on role of the father in attachment hard to disentangle from social biases about their role